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Qur’AN,
LIBERATION
&
PLURALISM

An Islamic Perspective of
Interreligious Solidarity
against Oppression

Farid Esack

Qup’AN,-
LIBERATION & PLURALISM

whe demise of apartheid in South Africa in the 1980s followed an

unprecedented unity in struggle against oppression from members
of different faith traditions. Determined as South African Muslims were
to participate with the rest of the oppressed in solidarity against
apartheid, this brought them into conflict with interpretations of the
Qur'an that denied virtue outside Islam, and left them searching for a
theology that would allow them to both co-operate against injustice and
be true to their faith,

In this challenging account, Farid Esack reflects on key qur'anic pi
sages used in the context of oppression to rethink the role of Islam in a
plural society. He exposes how traditional interpretations of the Qur'an
were used to legitimize an unjust order, and demonstrates that those very
texts used to support religious intolerance, if interpreted within a con-
temporary socio-historical context, support active solidarity with the reli-
gious Other for change.

Combining social history, politics and theology, this book offers
scholars, students and all those concerned with Islam in the modern
world a fascinating insight into a contemporary issue, against the back-
drop of one of the most exciting periods of world history.

‘This book by a brilliant young Muslim scholar is important for all of us
significant new religious understanding always comes out of new

experiences, and in the liberation struggle in South Africa the Qur’an

revealed new aspects of its meaning.

John Hick, Danforth Professor of Philosophy of Religion, Claremont Graduate

‘School, California

Esack's Islamic liberation theology is as stunning and challenging as was
Gutierrez’s Christian liberation theology . . . Esack offers a challenge for
all religions: that human liberation and interreligious dialogue cannot be
realized without cach other . .. an extraordinarily good book.

Paul Knitter, Professor of Theology, Xavier University, Cincinnati

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

my late mother who succumbed to the triple oppression of women
under apartheid: racism, capitalism and patriarchy . . . and who
insisted that her kids were her only form of entertainment.

To Jill Wenman, my fully human teacher of History and English at
school who first lit my candle, alerted me to the pain and joys of critical
thinking, and popped her lunch pack into my hand as I was escorted
from school by the security police.

To Brother Norman Wray and all those crazy Christian Pakistanis, who
compelled me to sce the relationship between faith and praxis, and who
still refuse to adjust to inhumanness.

To all those who journeyed with me (or suffered journeying with me!) in
the Call of Islam and without whose commitment there would have been
no South African qur'anic hermeneutic of pluralism for liberation,

To all of those who offered me academic support and friendship during
my sojourn in England. I am particularly grateful for the critical insight
and loving friendship of my doctoral thesis supervisor, Christian Troll
SJ. The editorial insights of Sigvard von Sicard, Chris Hewer, and Toby
Howarth, were also invaluable

To the Woodbrook community who survived my sojourn. I am particu-
Jarly grateful to Claire Chamberlain for all the comforts of home and to
John Wyatt for his friendship.

To C. Aid who funded my rather expensive PhD programme. Many
thanks for the monthly cheque, Alex, and sorry that I did not get to make
it wa single one of the annual get-togethers.

To Patrice Brodeur, for crucial and invaluable editorial assistance, an
even more invaluable friendship and for remembering the distance
between Nynashamn and Oskarshamn.

To Pfarrerin Frau Gisela Eggler, for a supporting friendship, challenging
solidarity und auch fier die (oder ‘der’? vielleiche ‘das'?) Waschmaschine,

To all left of the road Claremont Main Roaders for the sense of commu-
nity. Particularly to the imam, Abdul Rashied Omar for his courage and
comradely support in developing a theology of disgruntlement and com-
passion as well as a hermeneutic of suspicion and faith; to its secretary,
Fahmi Gamildien, for the wonderfully supportive role he played in my
interminable word-processing and printing problems and to Dr Abdul
Kader Tayob for having read through the manuscript and offering valu-
able, albeit unheeded, advice.

To Riffat Muhammad for considerable and tireless, well, sort of, last
minute location of sources and bibliographical details, assistance with
proof-reading and a great cup of coffee,

‘To Novin Doostdar and Juliet Mabey of Oneworld Publications for suc
cumbing to the idea that friendship and business can mix, and to their
dog Tess, for offering me some welcome, otherwise entirely withheld,
whenever I stay over at my publishers’ house.

‘To the de Smidrs, for a piece of sunny Cape Town in the heart of
London’s East End.

‘To Helen Coward of Oneworld for her interminable hassling on editorial
detail and a great midwifing of this work.

And to my family in Cape Town and Port Shepstone, for always being
there,

CONTENTS

List of Abbreviations
Notes on Language

Introduction

What Baggage does this Interpreter Carry?
Religion as Contested Territory

Whose Justice? Which Morality?

This Work and its Objectives

Summary of Chapters

Notes

1 The Context

The Known Beginnings

‘The Muslims of the Cape

Side by Side on the Long Walk
Conclusion: The Issues

Notes

2 Between Text and Context
Interpreters are People

What are Hermeneutics?

What is the Qur’an?

Traditional Qur’anic Scholarship and Hermeneutics

Two Contemporary Approaches
Understanding a Text

Conclusion: Whose Morality? Which Justice?
Notes

3 Hermeneutical Keys
A Hermeneutic of Liberation

A Qur'anic Theology of Liberation
‘The Keys to Understanding
Conclusion: The Qur'an Speaks
Notes

4 Redefining Self and Other

‘The Ever-Decreasing Chosen and the Ever-Increasing Frozen
Rethinking Iman

Redefining Islam: From a Noun to a Verb

Rethinking Kutt

Conclusion: From Counting Labels to Judging Content

Notes

5 The Qur’an and the Other

An All-Seeing God Who Does Not Turn a Blind Eye
The People of the Book

‘The Mushrikun

The Religious Other in the Qur'an

‘The Propheric Responsibility

Conclusion: The Pre-Eminence of Pluralism

Notes

6 Redefining Comrades and Opponents
‘Pluralism Wedded tw Liberarion

‘The Qur'an and Wilayah as Collaboration

Muhammad and Solidarity with the Oppressed

The Exodus Paradigm of Solidarity

Conclusion: A Liberative Praxis

Notes

7 From the Wilderness to the Promised Land
From Confrontation t Negotiation

‘The Political Challenges

‘The Social Challenges

‘The Gender Jinadt

Conclusion: Progressive Islam Imprisoned in a Mosque?

Notes

Conclusion
Appendix One
Appendix Two
Appendix Three
Glossary
Bibliography
Index

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207
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283

List of ABBREVIATIONS

‘African Muslim Party
‘Afrikaner National Bond.

‘Affican National Congress

Affican People's Organization

‘Azanian People’s Organization

Black Consciousness

Constitutional Assembly

Coloured Affairs Department

Call of Islam

Cape Istamic Federstion

Cape Malay Association

Claremont Muslim Youth Association
Cape Muslim Youth Movement
Convention for a Democratic South Africa
Congress of Traditional Leaders
Congress of South African Trade Unions
Coloured People’s Assoxiation

Dutch Reformed Church

Encylopedia of Retgon

Encyclopaedia of llam

stitute of Contextual Theology
Inkatha Freedom Party

Islamic Party

Islamic Propagation Centre

‘Muslim Jusicial Counest

‘Muslim Personal Law

‘Musliro Personal Law Most

Muslim Students Association

‘Muslim Youth Movement
Non-European Unity Movement
‘National Liberation League

National Muslim Conference

‘National Party

New Unity Movement

Pan-Africanist Congress

People Against Drugs and Gangsterism
‘Shorter Encyelopcsia of Llaom

‘South African Black Scholars Association
South African Council of Churches
United Democratic Front

University of the Western Cape

World Conference of Religion and Pesce

NoTES on LANGUAGE

Transliteration

A simplified form of transliteration from Arabic has been followed to
facilitate things for the non-specialist reader, with the exception of words
such as Qur’an, Islam and Muslim, which, through frequent usage, are
part of the English language.

Proper names and titles have been transliterated according to the
Practice of the organization or individual. Transtiteration in quotations is
unchanged.

‘An apostrophe and inverted comma are used for the Arabic letters
hamsah and ‘ayn respectively. These letters are disregarded in the alpha-
beticul ordering of the Glossary.

Translations

All the translations from foreign languages into English are my own, with
the exception of qur’anic texts where, in the main, Muhammad Asad’s
The Message of the Qur’an (Gibraltar: Dar al-Andalus, 1980) was adopt-
ed, Citations of the Qur'an are in the form ‘chapter (surah): verse’

Local Usage

‘The following words with a peculiarly, though not exclusively, South
African usage are retained: ‘motivate’ (to account for, to explain, to justi-
fy) and ‘engage’ (to encounter in a deliberate and conscious manner)

In the cases where the local usage of an ideological category differs
markedly from that employed elsewhere, I chose the local usage and sup-
ply an explanatory note where the term first appears.

Terminology

‘The following key terms are used throughout the book:

‘The term accommodationis is used in this book in the sense of willingly
coexisting in harmony with the structures of political power, whatever their
ideological nature, The use of the term is discussed further in chapter 6,

Notes om Lang

Hermeneutics are discussed in detail in chapter 2, but may be defined
briefly as the science of interpretation which deals with the relationship
between the author (or speaker), reader (or listener) and text, and the
conditions under which one understands a text.

‘The term Islamist is usually employed interchangeably with ‘Muslim
fundamentalist’ in the current discourse of political Islam, which uses an
essentialist theology to influence and eventually achieve political power.
In South Africa the term ‘Islamist’ refers to those who are committed to
Islam in a comprehensive manner, with particular emphasis on actualizing
its ideals in the socio-political sphere. The term is used in this sense
throughout this study. Some of these Islamists were committed to what
was referred to as ‘a South African expression of Islam’ (Esack 1988b, p.
48). By this they meant an approach to Islam that made a conscious effort
to relate to the struggle for an undivided, non-racial and non-sexist South
Africa. In common with growing practice in South Africa, this group is
referred to as ‘progressive Islamists in the present work.

Islamic fundamentalism, as popularized in much of the Western
media, represents a stereotype with pejorative and disparaging connota-
tions. It is often sweeping in its generalization and insensitive to the many
nuances in the world of contemporary Islam, Furthermore, ‘fundamen-
talism’, in a religious context, has a peculiarly Christian basis in attitudes
to the Bible as scripture (ER, see ‘evangelical and fundamental religion’),
However, in contemporary Islamic discourse there is a tendency that can
‘appropriately be described as fundamentalism. In brief, this tendency has
the following characteristics: 1) a commitment to strict religious practice;
2) a commitment to observance of the text; 3) an ahistorical view of
Islam as capable of permanently solving all the problems of humankind
4) a belief in the necessity of enforcing the shari‘ah as fundamentalists
understand it to have been practised in the Muhammadan era in Medina;
5) a commitment to the establishment of an Islamic state wherein the
sovereignty of God, juxtaposed against popular sovereignty, would be
supreme; 6) enmity towards all who reject fundamentalist views as people
who have chosen Evil against Good and 7) a denial of any virtue in
non-Islam.

Liberation, 1 consider to be the freedom of all people from all those
Jaws, social norms and economic practices that militate against them
developing their potential to be fully human and fully alive, In the con-
text of apartheid South Africa, this essentially meant freedom from
apartheid and economic exploitation, the right of all its inhabitants freely
to elect a government of their choice and to participate on an ongoing

Qur'an, Liberation & Ploralism

basis in the various decision-making processes that would shape their
lives.

Pluralism can be described as the acknowledgement and acceptance,
rather than tolerance, of Othemess and diversity, both within the Self
and within the Other. In the context of religion it means the acceptance
of diverse ways of responding to the impulse, which may be both innate
‘and socialized, within each human being towards the Transcendent.

Prophetic is used in the sense of pertaining to the prophets, ranging
from Adam to Muhammad, as understood by Muslims.

Other terms are defined briefly in the text as they arise and are also
listed in the glossary. Arabic words preceded by the article al- (the) are
listed in the glossary under the first letter of the following word.

INTRODUCTION

In HumBLE Susmission to the
ALMIGHTY Gop

Jw noe uncommon for religious believers in the struggle to ducover that they have
wn thealagcally speaking, with comrades from very different religious

hey have with members of their own communities who are not
anvolved in the struggle. This religioxs commonalty in che struggle demands a theo-
logical framework which can give wt expreston and explain it

(Grows 1990, p.2)

What Baggage does this Interpreter Carry?

“God's word is revealed to the searcher’. Which comes first, the word or
the searcher? At first glance this is a seemingly innocuous question, Not
so when dealing with # text such as the Qur'an which most Muslims
believe to be co-eternal with God (in other words, it has existed as long
as God has). So where does one commence a work on qur'anic
hermeneutics, the text or the context? Alas, the slip will show right from
the beginning. Given that every literary production is inescapably autobi-
‘graphical, I shall locate the birth of my ideas in my personal, social, and
ideological history.

T have always been deeply moved by humankind’s seemingly inex-
haustible capacity to inflict injustice upon the ‘Other’ — religious, racial or
sexual ~ and for long have I estimated my own humanity ~ of lack thereof
~ in terms of my willingness to react against it or my inability, unwilling-
ness or refusal to do so.

My father abandoned our family when I was three weeks old. My

Qurvan. Liberar

& Pluralism

mother was left with six sons of whom three were from a previous mar-
riage where her first husband had abandoned her when the third son was
three months old. (Enough to drive anyone to Trinitarianism!) I was
raised in Bonteheuwel, a coloured township on the Cape Flats to which
our family was forcibly moved under the Group Areas Act. This
apartheid law, promulgated in 1952, set aside the most barren parts of
the country for Blacks, Indians and Coloureds.’ Long periods passed dur-
ing which we had no shoes and I recall running across frost-covered fields
to school so that the frost could not really bite into my feet. Slightly more
painful were the many times when my brother and I went around knock-
ing on the doors of neighbours to ask for a piece of bread or scavenging
in the gutters for discarded apple cores and the like.

‘This poverty was but one manifestation of apartheid South Africa,
Here, in the 1980s, Whites, who constituted one-sixth of the total popu
lation, earned almost two-thirds of the national income while Blacks, who
made up nearly three-quarters, earned only one quarter (Wilson and
Ramphele 1989, p. 20). As for the millions who did not even fall in the
category of wage eamers, the unemployed: “We just sleep in the wilder-
ness. You sleep without having eaten and you get up without having
eaten. Tomorrow you go and look for a job. If you don't get it, you come
back, When you come back, you go about uncovering rubbish bins think-
ing: “Could it be there is something that has been thrown in here, just a
little something that I can chew?"" (ibid., p. 100)

‘My mother was an underpaid worker in a factory where she slogged
from can't see to can’t see ~ from early in the morning when it was still
dark until late when it was dark already, My early life as a victim of
apartheid and poverty, seeing my mother finally succumb under the bur-
den of economic exploitation and patriarchy, filled me with an abiding
commitment to a comprehensive sense of justice.

A Land of Many Faiths

In both Wynberg and Bonteheuwel we had Christian neighbours on both
sides of our house and in our school ewe were subjected to Christian
National Education, a conservative religious ideology meant to make us
obedient and God-fearing citizens of the apartheid state. Besides
Christians, the only recollection I have of the religious Other are of Mr
Frank, a kind debt collector who was a jew and of Tahirah, a Bah’ girl
at primary school whose parents prohibited her discussing her faith with
anyone

Introduction

South African society has for long been multi-religious. The now vir-
tually decimated Khoikhoin, the Nguni, the San and other indigenous
groups are known to have held diverse religious beliefs and practices. The
arrival of Dutch Christian settlers, Muslim slaves and political exiles from
the Indonesian Archipelago in the middle of the seventeenth century
accentuated this religious diversity. More recent numerically significant
additions to this diversity are the Hindus who arrived in the second half
of the nineteenth century from India and the East European Jews who
made their way to South Africa at the turn of this century.”

On our Christian neighbours we depended for ‘a cup of sugar’,
rand until Friday’, and a shoulder to cry on — and on the kindness of Mr
Frank we depended for extensions on the repayment of the never-ending
hire-purchase agreements. The fact that our oppression was mude bear-
able by the solidarity, humanity and laughter of our Christian neighbours
made me suspicious of all religious ideas that claimed salvation only for
their own and imbued me with a deep awareness of the intrinsic worth of
the religious Other. How could I possibly look Mrs Batista and Aunty
Katie in the eye while believing that, despite the kindness that shone from
every dealing which they had with us, they were destined for the fire of
hell? This acceptance of the Other, the core of religious pluralism, did
not come naturally however, to the township dwellers. Even as people
suffered together they upheld notions of exclusive paradises for
Christians or Muslims; even as they shared their humble meals with each
other, they did so serving the religious Other out of specially reserved
marked plates and cups.”

Religion plays a major role among all classes in South African soci-
ety. In the ghettoes the first community project is invariably the building
‘of a mosque or a church. In the face of dislocation from a stable commu-
nity under the Group Areas Act, religion or alcohol ~ more often than
not, both - became important factors in the struggle for survival. In my
family Islam as a cultural anchor was an important tool in the struggle for
survival among the sandy dunes and Port Jackson trees of Bonteheuwel,
‘We bonded quickly with our Muslim neighbours ~ and ‘neighbours’
could conceivably include those living thirty or forty houses away from
ours. While my family was not unusually religious, the mosque-in-
progress was, nevertheless, an important focal point. Here I played after
school and weekends, pushed wheelbarrows of sand as a child and ended
up as secretary of the society that controlled the mosque and as madras
sah teacher when I was still a kid at school.

Qur

Service in Return for Justice

‘Iwas strangely and deeply religious as a child, with a deep concern for the
suffering which I experienced and witnessed all around me. I dealt with
these two impulses by holding on to an indomitable belief that for God to
be God, God had to be just and on the side of the marginalized. More
curious was a logic, based on a text in the Qur'an, ‘If you assist Allah then
‘He will assist you and make your feet firm’ (47:7). For me this meant that
Thad to participate in a struggle for freedom and justice and, if I wanted
God's help in this, then I had to assist Him.’ ‘Him’ was interpreted as ‘His
religion’ and so I persisted with the Tablighi Jama’ah, an international
Muslim revivalist movement, that I had joined at the age of nine.

I was still at school when I was first detained by the Special Branch,
as the security police were then known, as a result of my work in
National Youth Action and the South African Black Scholars
Association. Both of these organizations were committed to radical socio-
political change and were housed in the buildings of the Christian
Institute before its banning in 1973. There we enjoyed the warm hospi-
tality and solidarity of its director, the Reverend Theo Kotze, and his
staff, Theo offered the Muslims in these organizations prayer facilities
and came to visit our families after our release from detention, to console
them and to assure them that ‘getting mixed up’ with the police was actu-
ally a privilege. (A poster on the wall of the Christian Institute read:
“Where there's growth there's a branch; where there's special growth,
there’s bound to be a special branch’.)

Pakistani Women and Christians as Black South Africans

After school I spent eight years on a scholarship in Pakistan doing my
theological training, much of it in a frightfully conservative institute
where everything ‘this-worldly’ was frowned upon, I remember a twelve-
year-old, Abdul Khaliq Allie, being rushed to hospital one night and
undergoing an emergency operation lasting a couple of hours, Adil Johaar
stayed with him the morning, while I trod along to classes after having
spent the night in hospital, In class the following morning Mawlana
Baksh enquired where Adil was. Upon being told that Adil was watching
‘over Abdul Khaliq in hospital, he said: “Did you people come here to
study or to look after sick people?

I marvel at how I survived the place; a combination of courage, cun-
ning and the Grace of God I suppose.

Introducti

Much as I came to love Pakistan, my coming from a Muslim family
in a minority situation alerted me to the religious and social persecution
of the Christian and Hindu minority communities. Derrick Dean, a
young Christian activist, was visiting me one night in the madrassah room
I shared with six others. Haji Bhai Padia, the South African leader of the
‘Tablighi Jama‘ah, put in a surprise appearance. Upon discovering that
Derrick was not a Muslim he asked him to recite the kalimah, the
Muslim formula of faith. I had a deep respect for Derrick as he was, and
much love for Bhai Padia, and felt somewhat embarrassed. What was
happening here was that my simplistic logic of “If you help God, He
will help you" was becoming unstuck. The gap between my inherently
conservative theology and progressive praxis was becoming exposed
and choices had to be made,

I frequented the discussions of the Student Christian Movement, later
renamed Breakthrough and witnessed how they tried to make sense of liv
ing as Christians in a fundamentally unjust and exploitative society. The
most inspirational figure of the group, Brother Norman Wray, a La Salle
brother, invited me to come and teach Islamic Studies at a school where he
was the principal, I subsequently worked with him and the group on a
number of different projects, which included para-medical work in the
Karachi Central Prison, teaching in Hindu and Christian ghettoes for
sweepers, and working in a home for abandoned children. Later I was to
repeat all of the lessons of marrying belief and praxis in South Africa,

In Pakistan I also became vividly aware of the many similarities
between the oppression of women in Muslim society and that of Blacks
in apartheid South Africa. The inescapable convergence between sexist
and racist discourse has, consequently, come to form a permanent back-
drop to my own concems and commitment.

As if all of this were not enough.

Soon after my return to South Africa in 1982 I was called into a
room by Omar, one of my brothers and the door was closed. ‘Farid, we
have a sister; she’s the eldest of all of us’. My mother had had a daughter
before marrying her first husband and the baby was handed over to her
father seven days later. The pain of living an entire life carrying this
secret must have been unbearable. Society stigmatizes women who fall
Pregnant outside marriage, as if these pregnancies were all phantom-
induced, with no men ever involved. Later I learnt from Sharifah, my sis-
ter, now sixty years old, of the unbearably sad spectacle of an utterly lonely
woman standing on the side of the road, watching from a safe distance the
funeral procession of her mother - whom she had never known ~ passing,

Qur

Service in Return for Justice

‘Iwas strangely and deeply religious as a child, with a deep concern for the
suffering which I experienced and witnessed all around me. I dealt with
these two impulses by holding on to an indomitable belief that for God to
be God, God had to be just and on the side of the marginalized. More
curious was a logic, based on a text in the Qur'an, ‘If you assist Allah then
He will assist you and make your feet firm’ (47:7). For me this meant that
Thad to participate in a struggle for freedom and justice and, if I wanted
God's help in this, then I had to assist Him.’ ‘Him’ was interpreted as ‘His
religion’ and so I persisted with the Tablighi Jama’ah, an international
Muslim revivalist movement, that I had joined at the age of nine.

Pakistani Women and Christians as Black South Africans

After school I spent eight years on a scholarship in Pakistan doing my
theological training, much of it in a frightfully conservative institute
where everything ‘this-worldly’ was frowned upon, I remember a twelve~
year-old, Abdul Khaliq Allie, being rushed to hospital one night and
undergoing an emergency operation lasting a couple of hours, Adil Johaar
stayed with him the morning, while I trod along to classes after having
spent the night in hospital. In class the following morning Mawlana
Baksh enquired where Adil was. Upon being told that Adil was watching
‘over Abdul Khaliq in hospital, he said: “Did you people come here to
study or to look after sick people?"

I marvel at how I survived the place; a combination of courage, cun-
ning and the Grace of God I suppose.

Introducti

Much as I came to love Pakistan, my coming from a Muslim family
in a minority situation alerted me to the religious and social persecution
of the Christian and Hindu minority communities. Derrick Dean, a
young Christian activist, was visiting me one night in the madrassah room
I shared with six others. Haji Bhai Padia, the South African leader of the
‘Tablighi Jama‘ah, put in a surprise appearance. Upon discovering that
Derrick was not a Muslim he asked him to recite the kalimah, the
‘Muslim formula of faith. I had a deep respect for Derrick as he was, and
much love for Bhai Padia, and felt somewhat embarrassed. What was
happening here was that my simplistic logic of “If you help God, He
will help you" was becoming unstuck. The gap between my inherently
conservative theology and progressive praxis was becoming exposed
and choices had to be made,

As if all of this were not enough.

Qur'an, Liberation & Pluralism

not daring to go near in fear of rejection by six brothers.

In 1983 resistance to a new constitution began. The preamble of this
widely rejected tricameral constitution commenced with ‘In humble sub-
mission to the Almighty God’ and then proceeded with the details of an
elaborate system of entrenching the racial divisions among God's people,
While the then state president, P. W. Botha, invoked the biblical narra-
tive of the prodigal son to plead for apartheid South Africa’s re-entry into
the community of nations, the vast majority of South Africans of diverse
religious persuasion were making plans, in the name of the same
Almighty God, to intensify that isolation and to destroy that same consti-
tution as the first step of the last stage in the liberation struggle.

Religion as Contested Territory

South Africa was entering the beginning of the last stage of our struggle
against apartheid and I could not bear being safely tucked away in a sem-
inary, The discomfort first experienced when Bhai Padia wanted Derrick
to recite the Aalimah had turned full circle. Along with three friends, 1
spearheaded the founding of the Call of Islam in 1984. This affiliate of
the United Democratic Front (UDF, established in 1983), the major
internal liberation movement, soon became the most active Muslim move-
ment, mobilizing nationally against apartheid, gender inequality, threats to
the environment and to interfaith work. In the UDF itself, the Call was
one of many religiously based organizations engaged in ‘the struggle’. For
these organizations, religion had always been contested terrain and the
struggle was as much about regaining ideological territory from religious
‘conservatism and obscurantism as it was about political freedom,

Much of the suffering inflicted on the people of South Africa was
committed in the name of, and sometimes with, the scriptural support of
& religious tradition, more specifically, that of Christianity. However, the
subjugation and oppression of South Africa’s people did not proceed with
the general support of all Christians. Organizations such as the Christian
Institute and individuals such as Beyers Naudé and Theo Kotze show
that, even among Christians who came from privileged backgrounds,
there were always dissident voices calling for justice and human rights.
‘These voices were often marginalized and smothered, but always coher-
ent and principled. They invoked the same sacred scriptures, often even
the same textual references to sustain their arguments, as their fellow
Christians to denounce the exploitation and suffering of black people,

Religion and scripture as contested territory were also evident in the

responses among the exploited and oppressed. The vast majority of
Blacks and a small, but significant, number of Whites viewed the entire
social structure of South Africa as irredecmably racist, exploitative and
desperately in need of radical changes. Given the significance of religion
in the lives of South Africans, it was not surprising that many made a
connection between religion and liberation. (Even if some did it rather
simplistically, wanting to help God's religion if He helped them bring
about freedom!) There were, however, also many who argued that poli-
tics should be kept apart from religion. Among Blacks, the ‘apolitical’
Zionist Christian Church, with a membership numbering a few millions,
attracted hundreds of thousands to their annual gathering at Moria. The
Charismatic and Pentecostal churches, which claimed to confine them-
selves to ‘spiritual’ concerns, attracted people from all race groups and
experienced tremendous growth in the urban areas during the 1980s
(Gifford 1988; 1989)"

All the main political players in South Africa invoked religion as the
ultimate proof of self-correctness. In 1985, from his prison cell on
Robben Island, Nelson Mandela wrote a moving letter to the Muslim
Judicial Council (MJC, established in 1945), wherein he spoke about the
spiritual solace he derived from his visits to the shrine of Shaikh Madura,
a Muslim saint imprisoned on the island until his death in 1742 (see
Appendix One). In that letter he also reaffirmed his commitment to his
Methodist roots and spoke glowingly about the role of religion, not just
Christianity, in shaping the ideals of the African National Congress
(ANC, established in 1912). Meanwhile, in the KwaZulu Bantustan cap-
ital of Ulundi, Gatsha Buthelezi, the Bantustan's leader, at his annual
prayer breakfasts, lamented the political role which religious leaders were
increasingly playing against homeland governments.

In the 1980s especially, the conflict between two expressions of
religion, accommodationist and liberatory was increasingly evident. In
‘@ context of oppression, it seems that theology, across religious divi-
sions, fulfils one of two tasks: it either underpins and supports the
structures and institutions of oppression or it performs this function in
relation to the struggle for liberation. Accommodation theology tries to
accommodate and justify the dominant status quo ‘with its racism,
capitalism and totalitarianism. It blesses injustice, canonizes the will of
the powerful and reduces the poor to passivity, obedience and apathy’
(The Kairos Document 1985, p. 13). It focuses on questions of personal
conversion and salvation while it ignores or denies the role which
socio-economic structures play in the shaping of personal values. In a
sociological investigation into this model of religiousness conducted in

Qur'an. Libera)

& Pluralism

1969, Milton Rokeach reported that

the general picture that emerges is that those who place a high
value on salvation are conservative, anxious to maintain the
status quo and unsympathetic or indifferent to the plight of
the black or the poor. Considered all together, the data sug-
est a portrait of the religious minded as a person having a
self-centred preoccupation with saving his own soul, an other
worldly orientation, coupled with indifference toward or even
a tacit endorsement of a social system that would perpetuate
social inequality and injustice. (Cited in Stott 1984, p. 8)

In South Africa manifestations of this theological model were witnessed
both in the so-called mainstream religious structures such as the Anglican
and Dutch Reformed Churches and the Majlisul Ulama, and in numer-
ous groups such as Christians for Peace, Christ for All Nations, the
Zionist Christian Council, the United Christian Reconciliation Council,
the Tablighi Jama‘ah and the Islamic Propagation Centre.

In contrast to accommodation theology, liberation theology is the
process of praxis for comprehensive justice, the theological reflection that
emerges from it and the reshaping of praxis based on that reflection. In
South Africa, liberation theology was manifested in the growing numbers
of religious figures and organizations who confessed the sin of silence in the
face of oppression, acquiescence in the face of exploitation and power in
the face of want. They sought a God who is active in history, who desires
freedom for all people and the simultaneous conversion of hearts and social
structures, a God whose own unity was reflected in the oneness of people.

‘The tension between these two expressions of theology was not con-
fined to Christianity; Islam, Hinduism, Judaism and African Traditional
Religion, in various degrees, saw new forms of contextual theology and
religious structures emerging to challenge apartheid. In resisting the ideol-
ogy of apartheid and its resulting injustices, adherents of all faiths increas-
ingly discovered each other as companions in the struggle for justice. In
the Muslim community the most significant area where this battle over
interpretations of religion was being waged was the discourse of solidarity
with the religious Other in the struggle against apartheid.

When the Self Engages the Other

Interfaith solidarity, particularly during the 1980s, was an intrinsic part of
the South African struggle for justice, It also remains an important
dimension of the vision for a just and non-racial society held by all of

those who were a part of that struggle. The often bitter debate around
interfaith solidarity against apartheid featured prominently in Muslim
discourse in the 1980s. With the emergence of a non-racial and democra-
tic South Africa, it is timely to examine some of the theological dimen-
sions of this debate and their wider hermeneutical implications.

How did political activism, or the lack of it, shape the Muslim com-
munity’s understanding of the Qur'an and their perception of the Other?
‘How did a conscious desire to recognize and respect righteousness in reli-
giously Other comrades compel progressive Islamists to reinterpret
qur’anic texts which, at a superficial glance, may be regarded as unchari~
table, even unjust, to the Other? What led these Islamists regularly to
invoke some ‘revolutionary texts’ while quietly passing over other texts?
And what led the accommodationist clerics’ to invoke the ‘spiritual texts’
while ignoring other texts? How was Islam affected by its use as a means
of liberation? What does this question of Islam being ‘affected’ say about
deeply held beliefs in the Muslim community of a faith which has a time-
Jess essence and which transcends history? These were some of the ques-
tions confronting, and being confronted, by progressive Islamists who
have been engaged in what has cryptically been known as ‘the struggle’.

‘My present search for a South African qur’anic hermeneutic of plu-
ralism for liberation was rooted in the fusion of our nation’s crucible and
in my own commitment to comprehensive justice. While this work pri-
marily focuses on rethinking approaches to the Qur’an and to the theo-
logical categories of exclusion and inclusion rooted in a struggle for free-
dom from economic exploitation and racial discrimination, its application
is intended to be broader than these two forms of injustice. I believe that
the ideas I put forward can have a wider application to all categories of
social and political injustice, ranging from the obvious oppression of
women in Muslim society to discrimination against left-handed people.

Whose Justice? Which Morality?

But ‘whose “injustice"?", one may well ask. In the same way, in the
expression ‘In humble submission to the Almighty God’, one may also
ask: ‘but which God?", More than most societies, South Africans have a
particularly acute sense of the consequences of living with competing
realities and, consequently, rival in-/justices. The task of judging between
competing and incompatible rationalities and justices is exceptionally dif-
ficult, because one cannot pose a point of view which is free from any one
particular conception of rationality or justice (MacIntyre 1988, pp. 1-18).

Qur'an, Liberation & Pluralism

Contemporary hermeneutics alerts us to the false pretensions of
objectivity or neutrality and the need to rehabilitate ‘the concept of preju-
dice and a recognition of the fact that there are legitimate prejudices’
(Gadamer 1992, p. 261). The present work, like all literary productions,
takes sides, While not denying my personal commitment to the struggle
against injustice and the public role I have played in this regard, I strive
to make the best use of some contemporary developments in the human
sciences to explain the phenomenon of qur'anic interpretation among
contemporary South African progressive Islamists.

People with a religious commitment may choose to believe that truth
is exclusively an eternal and pre-existing reality beyond history. However,
people also make truth. Modernity has increased our awareness that the
human mind is not a blank slate covered with facts entirely imported
through cognitive or spiritual senses, or through the authority of religio-
intellectual traditions. Increasingly, we are beginning to understand that,
whatever else it may be, the essential awareness of one’s mind is as ‘the
tissues of contingent relations in language’ (Aitken 1991, p. 1).
Language, we now know, plays a significant role in shaping us and our
consciousness. Language though, much as it shapes history, is also a pris~
oner of history. Yet, according to Muslims, God is utterly beyond histo
ry. It is this utter beyondness and its use of an inevitably history-bound
mechanism, language, which provides a central dilemma for the Muslim
who also seeks to live contemporancously and in complete awareness of
the baggage of prejudices. More than the elaboration of intellectual
modemity and post-modernity in the West, it was the South African eru-
cible that confronted progressive Islamists with the ‘truth’ that people
bring their indispensable baggage of race, class, gender and personal his
tory along when they engage the qur’anic text.

My Baggage of Theological Assumptions

T believe that the Transcendent, God, has intervened and is intervening
in history, This intervention, however, can make no sense other than
within the framework of humankind’s existence here on earth. The reli~
ious legacy of South African Muslims, and our ongoing commitment to
that legacy, compel us to find new ways of describing the way God may
address a world in which human beings constantly change.

In South Africa the world in which Muslims live is also being shaped
by others who struggle to survive, who suffer, despair and hope; by others
who do not share their religious beliefs. The progressive Islamists could
not deny the joys of a shared existence and the moral compulsion of a

Introduction

common struggle against apartheid. Yet we had to live in faithfulness to a
text ~ the Qur’an - that seemed to be harsh towards the Other, suffering
along with us in the quest for liberation and justice. To become creatively
engaged alongside the Other, risked being transformed. Given that reli-
giosity was an intrinsic part of the identity of progressive Islamists, it was
inevitable that our understanding of religious tradition and scripture
would also be transformed.

‘What was, in effect, happening among us closely resembles the use of
the ‘hermeneutic circle’ in liberation theology. Juan Luis Segundo, a lib-
eration theologian from Uruguay, defines the hermeneutic circle us ‘the
continuing change in our interpretation of the Bible which is dictated by
the continuing changes in our present-day reality, both individual and
societal’ (Segundo 1991, p. 9).” He suggests two preconditions for creat-
ing a hermeneutic circle. First, profound and enriching questions and
suspicion about one’s real situation. Second, a new interpretation of
scripture that is equally profound and enriching.

The fundamental difference between Segundo’s circle and the
methodology proposed by Fazlur Rahman (d. 1988), one of this centu-
ry’s most profound modernist Islamic scholars, whose ideas are examined
in some detail in the second chapter, is the conscious decision to enter the
circle from the point of liberative praxis which is decidedly political. “The
hermeneutic circle’, says Segundo, ‘is based on the fact that a political ption
in favour of liberative change is an intrinsic element of faith’ (ibid., p. 97).

1 believe that a Muslim’s task of understanding the Qur'an within a
context of oppression is twofold. First, it is to expose the way traditional
interpretation and beliefs about a text function as ideology in order to
legitimize an unjust order. A text dealing with fitnah ~ (literally, “disor-
der’) would, for example, be critically re-examined in order to see how
the word has come to be broadly interpreted as challenges to the domi-
nant political status quo, however unjust that status quo may be, Second,
ir is to acknowledge the wholeness of the human being, to extract the reli-
gious dimensions within that situation of injustice from the text and uti-
lize these for the cause of liberation. (One would, for example, ask ques-
tions about the relationship of God to hunger and exploitation.) These
theological dimensions simultaneously shape and are being shaped by the
activity of those Islamists engaged in a struggle for justice and freedom.

To search for the religious dimensions of a particular socio-economic
situation and to highlight them may open one to charges of the selective
and arbitrary appropriation of certain texts, to the exclusion of others.
‘There are two responses to this problem. First, freedom from starvation

» Liberation & Pluralism

Qur

and exploitation paves the way for a more authentic popular embrace of a
comprehensive theology. You cannot truly submit to God when you are
under the yoke of hunger. Such submission is a form of coercion. The
hadith (saying of Muhammad) ‘I am in the hands of Allah with regards to
poverty and ku/r (rejection/ denial/ ingratitude)’ (Ibn Hanbal 1978, 2, p,
101) is a significant indicator of the relationship between lack of faith and
hunger. The Qur'an, in dealing with the encounter of the Israelites and
Pharaoh, does not refer to sins of ‘personal morality’ which may have
occurred among the Israelites because their dominant reality was that of
oppression; nor does the Qur'an dwell at length on the fecbleness of their
faith in God; it deals with Pharaoh’s claims to divinity and emphasizes
the political consequences of those claims for the enslaved Israelites
(10:83-5, 90), This is not to suggest that belief in the unity of God was
not an important requirement of the Israelites when they were enslaved;
it is only to argue that all dimensions of faith do not have to enjoy an equal
measure of attention at all times. Furthermore, if socio-political burdens
serve as obstacles to faith, then in the present historical circumstances, the
struggle for their removal must be the dominant aspect of a believer's
ty. The second response is that s search for the theological dimensions in a
particular political context does not imply that one views politics as the only
dimension of faith and that the text is valuable only in so far as it addresses
immediate political concems. It only emphasizes this dimension as the most
crucial one in the here and now ‘where people are crushed under the weight
of oppression and wandering in search of bread and human dignity’ (Boff
1985, p. 104). ‘That the Qur'an does, in fact, deal with these socio-political
burdens on numerous occasions is undisputed. ‘These qur'anic texts have,
however, been used to legitimize the burden and to provide comfort to
those responsible for its imposition. Accommodationist Islam's use of these
texts has done nothing to enhance the dignity of the victims of structural
injustice, nor to facilitate their freedom,

‘The beliefs outlined above lead to a number of ideas that both underpin
my investigation and are confirmed by it. They also support my advocacy of
a South African qur'anic hermeneutic of religious pluralism for liberation,

1, One cannot escape from the personal or social experiences which make
up the sum of one’s existence. Therefore, any person reading a text or
viewing any situation does so through the lenses of his or her experiences,

2. Anyone’s attempts to make sense of anything read or experienced take
place in a particular context. Because every reader approaches the
Qur'an within a particular context it is impossible to speak of an

Introduction

interpretation of the qur’anic text applicable to the whole world.
‘Meaning is always tentative and biased.

3. According to the Qur'an, one arrives at correct beliefs (orthodoxy)
through correct actions (orthopraxis) (29:69). The latter is the criterion
by which the former is decided. In a society where injustice and poverty
drive people to say “Even God has lefi, no one cares anymore’, ortho
praxis really means activity which supports justice, i.e, liberative praxis,
‘A qur'anic hermeneutic of liberation therefore emerges within concrete
‘struggles for justice and derives its authenticity from that engagement,

4, Formal statements of doctrine, whether ‘true’ or not, and no matter
how intensely the believer clings to them, are, in the first instance, the
results of intellectual labour that has often endured for centuries. This
labour is invariably accompanied by religio-political disputes, which
inevitably impact upon theological developments and the way these
statements are shaped.

5. Islamic theology in general, and qur'anic studies specifically, have
consistently become increasingly rigid in a process that followed the
systematization of theology. Accompanying this process was the grow-
ing inability to deal with all forms of Otherness, within the historical
community of Muslims and outside it

6. Both the revelation of the Qur'an within specific contexts, as well as
acceptance of the righteous and just Other are intrinsic to the Qur’an
(2:2815 3:23-4; 167111; 4:40, 85; 10:44; 12:56 etc.). It 1s Muslim
conservatism’ that persistently narrowed the theological base for defin-
ing iman, islam and widened the base for kufr.’ As the basis of conser-
vatism gradually narrowed, the categories of the Other widened so that
fewer and fewer were regarded as believers and more and more as kafir,

7, Muslims are confronted with a variety of urgent questions: What is an
‘authentic’ appreciation of the qur‘anic message today? What makes
and shapes ‘authenticity’? How legitimate is it to produce meaning,
rather than extracting meaning, from qur'anic texts? These are some
of the issues, which hermeneutics does not create (they have always
been with us) but which demand to be addressed. They are part and
parcel of the search for a qur’anic response to the challenges con-
fronting humankind today.

This Work and its Objectives

‘This search referred to above is located within a broader, universal strug-
gle for justice and religious pluralism and the need to rethink and reshape
the nature and role of religion so that it facilitates such a struggle. The

Qurtan, Liberation & Pluralism

thinking of others who have a similar frame of reference, such as Gustavo
Gutierrez, Asghar Ali Engineer, Juan Luis Segundo, Amina Wadud-
Muhsin, Clodovis and Leonardo Boff, Hassan Hanafi, Paul Knitter,
‘Abdullahi al-Na'im, or Fatima Memissi, even when not cited, forms a
permanent backdrop to this study. In South Africa itself, this work is part
of a growing trend among Muslim scholars and thinkers such as Ebrahim
Moosa, Abdul Rashied Omar, Ebrahim Rasool, Sa'diyya Shaikh and
Abdulkader Tayob to rethink creatively the role of Islam in a religiously
plural and patriarchal society.

My objectives in the present work are fourfold. First, to show that itis
possible to live in faithfulness to both the Qur'an and to one’s present
context alongside people of other faiths, working with them to establish a
more humane society. Second, to advance the idea of qur’anic hermeneu-
tics as a contribution to the development of theological pluralism within
Islam. Third, to re-examine the way the Qur'an defines Self and Other
(believer and non-believer) in order to make space for the righteous and
just Other in # theology of pluralism for liberation, Fourth, to explore the
relationship between religious exclusivism and one form of political con-
servatism (support for apartheid) on the one hand, and religious inclu-
sivism and one form of progressive politics (support for the liberation
struggle) on the other, and to supply a qur'anic rationale for the latter.

Methodology; What About Methodology?

Any discussion on hermeneutics is bound to draw upon a number of dif-
ferent disciplines. Furthermore, while many of the disciplines from which
such a discourse for a South African context may be drawn (e.g., history,
politics, qur’anic studies, linguistics) are well developed, the idea of
bringing them together in an interdisciplinary fashion is rather novel.

This overlapping also accounts for the absence of a chapter specifically
devoted to a survey and evaluation of literanure on the subject. The second
chapter does, however, deal at some length with previous writings on
hermeneutics by some Muslims, as well as the limitations of traditional
qur’anic scholarship with regard to the emergence of qur“anic hermeneutics
as a discipline. For other overlapping themes, such as Muslims in South
Africa, Mustim-Other relations or liberation theology in Islam, I supply an
overview of the relevant literature in notes, as they are discussed.

While the chapters of this work are clearly focused on particular
aspects of this study and follow a logical path, the work is, nevertheless,
characterized by a continuous criss-crossing of temporal, geographical

Introduction

and disciplinary boundaries. There is a constant reference to the text, the
context wherein it was revealed and the way it was received by the earliest
Muslims in the South African context. This criss-crossing of boundaries
also applies to my use of sources. The old, seemingly neat, divisions
between ‘traditionalism’, ‘modernity’, ‘western scholarship’ and ‘oriental-
ism’ are no longer tenable, if, indeed, they ever were. As I point out later
in another context, Otherness is a condition of Selfhood. A sign on a
church in Offenbach on the outskirts of Frankfurt is instructive for those
who still believe that there is a solitary path to anything:

‘The pizzas you eat come from Italy, your numerical system from the
Arabs, your script from the Romans, your toys from Hong Kong,
your electronic equipment from Japan, your clothes from Taiwan,
your wealth from trade with the rest of the world, And then you still
shout ‘Foreigners out!"?

‘The Self cannot walk away from any meaningful encounter with the
Other without carrying some of that Otherness along, and leaving some
of the Self behind. I have thus made equal use of Muslim and Other,
confessional and critical, traditional and contemporary sources. (And I
do not assuime that a source is either one or the other, for indeed, it is
possible to be simultaneously critical and confessional.) The constraints
of language ability, though, have compelled me to confine myself to
English and to pre-modem Arabic theological sources.”

Despite my views on the uncertainty and flexibility of categories, it is,
nonetheless, true that some approaches to life and to various ideological
responses are sufficiently coherent to warrant demarcation and definition,
While I question the present basis for exclusion and inclusion in Islamic
theological categories of Self and Other, I do not deny the usefulness of
definitions, Besides the categories of mustim, mu'min and. kafir, which I
examine in detail in chapter 5, other terms describing ideological or theo-
logical persuasions are defined when they are first used, and in the glos-
sary, In the later interpretative chapters, where I apply the ideas developed
in the earlier ones, I confine myself mainly to the Qur'an for text-proof, It
is the only scripture of Istam that all Muslims believe to be absolutely
authentic, Where I do cite a hadith in support of a particular opinion, it is
not because I believe that it is authentically the word of Muhammad,
although that may indeed be the case; I cite a hadith because it reflects the
presence of, and support for, the idea among earlier Muslims.

Qur Liberati

Summary of Chapters

Chapter 1 introduces the community from which the qur’anic re-inter-
pretative ideas and redefinition of Self and Other emerged. This histori-
cal overview of the Muslim community in the Wester Cape up to 1989
seeks to introduce a central notion of this study, that is, however else the
discourse on Islam is viewed, it is also an ideology informed by socio-his-
torical circumstances. The various shifts in the community's relationship
with the ruling class and the oppressed are examined and we see how
these shifts are shaped by socio-political developments rather than belief
in an unchanging qur’anic worldview. In this chapter the emphasis is pri-
marily on the post-1970 period, when it appeared as if those opposed to
apartheid gradually secured overwhelming community support. This
atmosphere saw the rise of both interfaith solidarity against apartheid and
resistance to such solidarity. The emergence of crucial qur’anic
hermeneutical questions is located within this context

‘The second chapter focuses on the relationship between revelation
and context. I argue that the process of revelation itself was never inde-
pendent of the community's context but consisted of a dynamic interac-
tion between the two. The principle of radnj, (literally, ‘gradualism” and
meaning ‘progressive revelation’) as reflected in the disciplines of naskh
(abrogation) and of asbab al-nucul (occasions of revelation), are examined
aas proof of this assertion. After discussing the definition of hermeneutics,
T look at its relationship with traditional ‘ulum al-Qur’an (qur'anic studies)
and reflect on the possibilities of the emergence of qur'anic hermeneutics.
‘The relevant writings of Mohammed Arkoun and Fazlur Rahman, among
the rare exceptions who deal with qur’anic hermeneutics, are examined
‘This chapter concludes with an argument for the inevitability of bias and.
the need to define, clarify and motivate the biases of the interpreter.

Chapter 3 deals with the South African struggle for the right of non-
clerics to approach the Qur'an and with ‘hermeneutical notions emerging
out of the volatile crucible of the interaction between Islam and the liber-
ative praxis’ (Le Roux 1989, p. 48). The following hermeneutical keys
are defined, contextualized and advocated as indispensable tools for
understanding the Qur'an in a society characterized by oppression and a
struggle for freedom: ragroa (Integrity in relation to God), rawhid (divine
holism and unity), al-nas (the people), al-mustad‘afun fi'l-ard (the
oppressed and marginalized on the earth), ‘ad! ma gist (balance and jus-
tice) and jihad wa ‘amal (struggle and praxis).

In chapter 4, I examine the three key quranic ethical terms whereby
Self and Other are defined. The terms islam, iman and Aufr are critically

& Pluralism

Introduction

‘examined in the light of the keys defined and motivated in the previous
chapter, their etymological meanings and use in the Qur’an. Their use in
contemporary Muslim discourse is examined within the context of the
contending ideologies and theologies of fundamentalism and liberation
and a case is made for their re-appropriation for a progressive Islam.

Using the same hermeneutical keys and the methodological princi-
ples elaborated upon and motivated earlier, in chapter 5 I broaden the
scope of my enquiry to look at the Qur’an’s attitude towards the Other.
This is preceded by some introductory comments regarding the terms the
Qur'an employs for the various groups, with particular attention to the
categories of ahi al-kitab and mushrikun, and the significance of dealing
with these texts within the context of their immediate and overall back-
ground. This is followed by a detailed discussion of what I view as the
fundamental principles determining the qur'anic attitude towards the
Other. These are the linkage between praxis and doctrine, a rejection of
religious arrogance and an acknowledgement of the diversity of religions
as emanating from God, who is above all forms of service to Him. The
chapter concludes with some reflections on the prophetic responsibility in
the face of this religious diversity.

Chapter 6 looks at the theme of a theology of religious pluralism and
that of liberation. The interreligious co-operation which forms the basis of
the previous chapters assumed conscious and dynamic dimensions within
the framework of a liberative praxis. ‘The inverse of this is also true: oppo-
sition to it came from these who advocated political quietism which, in a
situation of manifest injustice, is tantamount to collaboration. This theme
is reflected upon as the various sub-themes are drawn together with the
overall theme of the study. The influence of cross-cultural interfaith soli-
darity within liberative praxis on Islamic theology is discussed.

In the final chapter I look at the dramatic political changes occurring
in the country from 1990 until the adoption of the country’s new consti-
tution in 1996. With this background, I examine how far the Muslim dis-
course on liberation and pluralism has travelled since the days of the
‘struggle’ against apartheid. Muslim responses to a very limited sense of
morality, and the new terrain of struggle such as Muslim Personal Law
and gender equality, are discussed in the light of the success or failure of
key anti-apartheid entities to make credible connections between all
forms of injustice. The challenges of a liberatory and progressive qur'anic
discourse confined to conference halls and a particular mosque rather
than among the poor are also discussed.

‘The book concludes with a summary of the inevitable contextualization
of all attempts at understanding; the purpose of understanding scripture in

Qur'an, Liberation & Pluralism

‘an unjust society; the means of understanding in such a society and the
accompanying liberation of the text and of theology through this process.
‘Some final remarks deal with the fact that this liberation takes one into
other, unexplored, theological areas, These are raised, but left open for
exploration by others at another occasion,

Notes

|. fe should be noted thac echnic descriptions in South Africa often bear lite or no resem-
blance to reality. The term ‘Arab’. for example, was used to describe some Indians in Natal
during the late nineteenth century, European Jews were described as ‘Peruvians’ between
1B8B and 1914 and in the 1BS0s even white converts to Islam were referred to as ‘Malays’
(Chidester 1991, p. 14). In che case of the descripuon “Alrican’, absurd as it may sound, the
Khoon, the eariest known inhabrans of South Arica, would be excluded, Backs is an edie
description employed for those usualy referred to as “Alrcans’. The word ‘black’ may ako be a
poltical description referring: all non-Caucasians inthis area. ‘Coloured’ refers to those of ‘rived
parentage’ ~ and aren’ a of humankind? whvle ‘Whves' refers to people of Caucasian ori,

2. According to the 1991 population census, 70.4% of South Africans indicated 3 religious affil-
acion: 66.5% regarded themselves ax Christians, 13% as Hindus, 1.1% as Muslims and 12%
Indicated that they had no religion, while 29.6% did not answer the question or objected to
doing s0, Chrsuaity the dormant religion ameng a rac’ groups except the Indians,
13.1 do not believe in a masculine Deity and endeavour to use gender-inchisve language wher-
‘ever postible. In some cases though, particularly when dealing with a text such as the Qur'an,
‘one i constrained to employ the masculine form.

4, Recently revealed information wdicates that these groups were the recipients of substantial
‘sae funds from the apartheid regime in order to counter the influence of liberation theology,
5. In theory, Sunni hlam does not have an ecclevo and has therefore no cleric, In practice
though, the ‘uloma’ (eerily, scholars’), to all ncents and purposes, fulfil a similar function
and are often organized as 3 formal and insctutionalzed body. A secondary reason why |
prefer the term ‘clerics’ to ‘ulams” in the South Alrican context is that the group which
‘exercises religious leadership in Sout Arica comprises individuals with both scholarly and
on-scholarly backgrounds. It is, for example, not uncommon for the mu‘adhdhin (caller to
Prayer) to succeed the imam upon the latter's demise.

6. 1am unaware of any of the progressive slams, including myset, having read ary work on
eration theology during the 1980s. A vague awareness of it and its wignifcance in Latin
‘America and some parts of Ass was. however. common i iberation struggle circles

7. une the word ‘conservative’ to refer to ‘those who wish and think that iti possible to
reserve sovety substantially as it & and who deprecate the significance of social change’
{Cantwell Smith 1963, p. 377)

8, Aware that ail translation Is alto a form of incerpretation | prefer using the Arable terms
‘roughouc until the act of interpretavion is conscious and Intentional. These categories are
‘examined in some detal in chapter 4

9. This Is generally speaking However, where the occasional work in German, Urdu,
Afritaans or Dutch is cited, unless otherwise stated, the work was studied in the orignal lan-
_guage and the translation is mine, The language constraint with regards to pre-modern Arabic
‘was particularly an impediment in so far as one had to bypass the contemporary discussions
by erica scholars in the Arab world on the Quran. The very important contemporary writings
‘on linguistics, hermeneutics and quranke studies by the contemporary Egyptian scholar, Nasr
Humid Abu Zaid, with wich a casual acquanvance was made. are thus omitted from this book.

THE CONTEXT

Mus.ims in the CAPE

Your history & one of obedience to the Law an those in authority over you.

{Abslullah Abshirabiman, Cape Times, 15 Apel 1937)

The Known Beginnings

the San, who were hunters and gatherers, were the first people to

populate Southern Africa and are believed to have inhabited sub-
Saharan Africa for most of the past 10,000 years. They were followed by
the Khoikhoin, who were stock farmers, about 2,000 years ago. During
the first few centuries of the Christian era, the Nguni peoples, who
Worked iron, practised subsistence agriculture and kept cattle, populated
this part of the continent. Today this group forms the largest part of the
area's population and has until recently been categorized as ‘African’,
‘The first encounter of the Khoikhoin with Europeans occurred soon after
the arrival of Jan van Riebeeck on 6 April 1652. Sent by the Council of
Seventeen, Dutch shipping cartel, van Riebeeck arrived with some sev-
enty other people. In 1795, when the Cape was captured by the British,
the country saw the first influx of British. These two ethnic groups, the
Dutch and the British, came to constitute the white community towards
the end of the eighteenth century.

Adding to the demographical mixture of the Cape, the Dutch
brought slaves from India, Ceylon, Mauritius, Malaya, Madagascar,
Mozambique, the East Indies and elsewhere up to 1818. Despite consid-
erable intermarriage across ethnic lines, separate communities developed
for a number of sociological and political reasons. Remnants of the San

Qurvan, Liberation & Pluralism

fused with the slaves, some colonists and others to form the coloured
community. Small communities of the Khoikhoin have survived up to
this day in the north-western Cape and Namibia. In 1860, the Natal
Colony introduced Indian indentured labour on its sugar plantations,
thereby adding a fourth element to the region's existing racial pattern of
Blacks, Coloureds and Whites.

The Muslims Arrive in South Africa

‘The history and demography of Muslims in Southern Africa is well docu-
mented.’ Here I shall focus on the changing patterns within the Muslim
community with regards to the questions of resistance to and collabora-
tion with the various minority ruling groups.’ Interwoven with these
changing pattems is the question of solidarity between Muslims and
Others, whether with the marginalized and oppressed Other or against
the oppressing Other.

According to available documented evidence, Islam entered South
Africa from two directions and during different periods. The first stream.
arrived either in the company of, or shortly after the coming of, the first
colonists at the Cape in 1652. They hailed from various parts of the East
and comprised labourers, political exiles or prisoners and slaves.”
Together with local converts to Islam, they were usually referred to as
‘Malays’, despite the fact that less than one per cent of them came from
today’s Malaysia." In the Cape, this community gradually formed a sub-
group of what is commonly referred to as ‘the coloured community’, A
second stream of Mustims arrived in 1860 as indentured labourers from
India, along with some Hindus, ‘Their descendants are today concentrat-
ed in the northern provinces of Gauteng, Northwest, Mpumalanga,
Northern and KwaZulu-Natal, A thied and numerically insignificant
stream arrived between 1873 and 1880, when about 500 liberated slaves
were brought to Durban. Known as Zanzibaris, this group settled in and
around Durban.

The Muslims of the Cape

It is the first stream, however, that concems us here. Firstly, while there
hhaye been notable Muslim personalities from the northern provinces
involved in the struggle against apartheid, the Muslims of the Cape have
organized against it as a community on the basis of Islam, Secondly, it is
in the Cape that a qur’anic hermeneutic of liberation has been forged.
The Muslim community of the Cape is a small one which has

The Context

survived against tremendous odds.” An important contributing factor in
their survival as a distinct religious and cultural community was a strong
sense of being different from, even superior to, the religious Other. This
sense of religio-cultural superiority, together with economic considera-
tions, often led to many of them identifying with the other ‘superior
group’, the ruling class. The struggle for acceptance from the ruling class
and the imperatives of survival as a distinct religious community made
them amenable to frequent military co-option by the ruling
military-political structures. Historical fears of the potential for Muslims
to rebel were, however, always present in the ruling class and, indeed,
continued up to the dying days of the apartheid regime.” These fears, the
ruling class’s rejection of all Blacks as equal partners in government and,
for some at least, the ever-present Islamic appeal to egalitarianism and
brotherhood, ensured that Muslims were never fully absorbed into the
socio-political structures of the ruling class of apartheid.

Arrival and Survival

‘The early Muslim community comprised political exiles, slaves (many of
whom were converts to Islam), ordinary criminals banished to the Cape
and some free citizens, known as Mardyckers.” In the early days of the
community's presence here, the Muslim slaves regularly met in secret in
the homes of their ‘free’ co-religionists to observe some of their commu-
nal religious rituals. A key figure upon whom much of the religious lead-
ership of the first Mustims depended was Shaikh Yusuf (Abidin Tadia
‘Tioesoep, d. 1699). Yusuf, a son-in-law of Sultan Ageng, the King of
Bantam (now a part of Indonesia), was among the detained leaders of the
Bantamese liberation struggle against the Dutch. Yusuf was banished to
the Cape in 1694 along with a party of forty-nine followers. His arrival
heralded the transformation of a mere Muslim presence in the Cape into
fledgling community of Muslims. Living on the farm of Petrus van
Kalden, a Dutch Reformed minister, at Zandvliet, Yusuf became the pri-
mary source of religious guidance for Muslims and newly converted
slaves, His arrival was followed in 1697 by that of the Rajah of
‘Tamburah, another leader exiled to the Cape from the Indonesian
Archipelago, From 1743 onwards the ranks of these Muslims, now wide-
ly dispersed throughout the colony, were strengthened with the arrival of
some outstanding Muslim exiles.

‘The ability of the Mustims to formulate collective responses of resis-
tance to the difficult conditions of marginalization and slavery imposed
upon them, was severely restricted by a number of factors. These included

Qur'an, Liberstion & Pluralism

their isolation and dispersion over a wide geographical area within the
Cape, the diversity of their social origins and the lack of a developed
common cultural identity.

Their socio-political standing as religious and political leaders prior
to coming to the Cape meant that the Muslim exiles were also highly
respected by the authorities there. These Muslims were, nevertheless,
treated with considerable suspicion and located at a distance from the
heart of the colony (Boeseken 1964, p. 4; Jeffreys 1939, p. 195),
Historical evidence indicates that the Muslim slaves, exiles and free citi-
zens related to each other in a spirit of fraternity. This situation may have
been due to the bonds created by participation in a shared religion, on
the one hand, and to an overall socio-political position of marginaliza-
tion, on the other.

Early Muslim interaction with the religious Other cannot seemingly
fit into a single category, nor is there any indication that this interaction
‘was informed by the Que’an, despite the availability of qur'anic knowledge.
‘They interacted with the colonists as their benign overseers rather than as
hl al-kitab (People of the Book), # que'anic category describing somewhat
sympathetically Other religious communities in possession of a scripture,

The fact of a community's interaction being shaped by concrete
‘socio-political conditions rather than by a sacred scripture is also seen in
the Muslims dealing with those who did not belong to the ruling class,
‘They interacted with the rest of the slave community, as fellows in a
common yoke of marginalization, who might be won over to Islam,
Furthermore, there is nothing to suggest that their perception of either
the Nguni or the remaining sedentary Khoikhoin, differed in any way
from that of the ruling class. In fact, one segment of the Muslims, the
Mardyckers, shared responsibility for resisting the Khoikhoin attempts to
regain some of their historical presence in the Cape.

Collaboration, Consolidation and Litigation

From the late eighteenth century, Islam in the Cape became an ‘observ
able historical phenomenon’ (De Blij 1969, p. 246). Despite the perpetu-
in of a wide array of repressive religious policies that continued well
into the nineteenth century, this period ‘witnessed a shift in emphasis
towards more overt, unified forms of organization’ (Bradlow 1987, p.
19). It was the beginning of Muslim resurgence and the spread of reli-
gious knowledge, a period of consolidation for the Muslims as a perma-
nent and dynamic community with overt religious practices. Towards the
end of the eighteenth century, with the British capture of the Cape in

The Contest

1775, a clear shift became evident in the nature of colonial relationships
with the colonized communities. In 1804 an ordinance allowing religious
freedom was published, thus enabling Muslims to practise their religion
without concealment from the authorities. The subsequent growing num-
ber of Muslims necessitated more overt forms of organization. This
development was also facilitated by the loosening of the state's authority
and the abolition of slavery in 1834.

It was in the socio-religious area that the most significant develop-
ments took place for the consolidation of the Muslim community.
Foremost among these was the arrival in 1780 of another political exile,
‘Tuan Guru (Imam ‘Abd Allah Qadi Abd al-Salam, d. 1807). Guru, who
hailed from Tidore in the Mollucan Straits, was detained for his role in
conspiring against the Dutch and was imprisoned on Robben Island,
Released in 1793, he led, in defiance of the law, the first open air salah
al-jumu'ah (Friday congregational prayers) after his application for per-
mission to do so was refused. This scholar also functioned as the com-
munity's first dam (religious leader) and its gadi (judge).

Several socio-religious structures were founded in this period. By
1795, when the occupation of the Cape by the British seemed imminent,
Muslim support for the defence of the colony was procured in return for
the “toleration of their religion and the right to build a mosque’ (Davids
1989). The British, upon taking control of the Cape, did not revoke the
recently acquired rights gained from the Dutch, On the contrary, they
even extended these. It is in this context that the Awwal Masjid (First
Mosque) was built in 1798 with Tuan Guru as its imam.

‘The new benign and pragmatic attitude towards the Muslim commu-
nity was directly related to the need of the British ruling power to secure
maximum moral and military support from the inhabitants of the Colony,
In return for such support, Muslims, at various times, received from the
authorities permanent facilities to utilize in the fulfilment of their reli-
gious rituals,”

‘This was also a period when the community experienced intense reli-
gious disputes, such as conflicting claims of religious authority and legal
rights to the property deeds of mosques. These disputes increased dra-
matically in the wake of the mosque and slamseskool (religious school)
‘boom (Davids 1980). The ensuing Muslim leadership struggles, as well
‘as the acrimony, time and energy devoted to them, seriously impaired the
community's ability to deal with the tensions between collaboration and
resistance; absorption into the structures of the ruling class or solidarity
with the aspirations of the indigenous people.

Qur'a) uralism

By the end of the 1860s Muslims owning property showed some
political awareness and the “Malay vote’ became a factor during munici-
pal and government elections. This was particularly the case in the elec-
tions of 1875, when Abdol Burns, a taxi driver and ally of Saul Solomon,
a Jewish member of the Empire League, emerged as a key figure to pro~
mote parliamentary political awareness among the Muslims.

Between Collaboration and Resistance

In South Africa as a whole, the Second Anglo-Boer War ended in 1902,
with the Boers defeated, and with a Zulu rebellion against poll taxes in
‘Natal in 1906 that led to the killing of 3,000 Zulus and 30 Whites. In
1910 the Union of South Africa was formed as a self-governing British
territory with the new constitution protecting the franchise rights enjoyed
by the Coloureds under the British. The South African Native National
Congress (established in 1912), later renamed the African National
Congress (ANC), became the first national African political movement to
‘oppose the increasing forced racial segregation and oppression. This was
exemplified by the Native Land Act of 1913, which limited Blacks, sev-
enty per cent of the population, to seven per cent of the land. In 1939,
South Africa entered World War Il on the side of the Allies and numer-
‘ous Blacks contributed to the war effort, while some Afrikaners advocat-
ed neutrality or support for the Nazis. In 1948, the National Party (NP)
came to power, determined to institutionalize racial discrimination in all
walks of life. Packing the Supreme Court with its supporters, the NP suc»
ceeded in 1956 in acquiring legal sanction for amendments te the country's
constitution, thus ensuring that the Coloureds lost their franchise rights,

The 1886-1969 period witnessed an eightfold increase in the
Muslim population of the Cape, from 15,099 to 120,000 (Kritzinger
1980, p. 34). While in the early days, especially, the vast majority of
Muslims were poor and working as domestic servants, tailors and skilled
artisans, a very distinct middle class also began to emerge. Professionals
in this class, comprising mostly teachers, a few doctors and lawyers,
played a significant role in the political life of the Cape during this peri-
od. ‘This era saw a growth of Muslim political assertion which spearhead-
ed a wider political awakening among Blacks in the Cape.

‘Street Urchins and Hobbledehoys’

‘Two developments reflect the changing face of the Muslim community in
the early part of this period: their response to the state’s health initiatives
uring the outbreak of the smallpox epidemic of 1882 and their attempts

The Conseat

to acquire direct representation in Parliament in the 1889 elections.
Several measures taken by the colonial health authorities during the
smallpox epidemics of 1807, 1812, 1840, 1858 and 1882 were rejected
by Muslims as repugnant to their faith, They also resented what they
regarded as intrusions into their lives by the colonial authorities. None of
the measures then promulgated, however, resulted in the community
response witnessed in 1886.” From 1882 onwards Muslims made it clear
that their objections to the proposed Public Health Act (adopted in 1893)
and the impending closure of the Tana Baru cemetery were religious and
that ‘their religion [was) superior to the law" (Cape Times, 2 September
1882). Abdo! Burns, who had led a sustained campaign against the intro-
duction of this Act, now led the defiance against its enacument. Two days
after the official closure of the Tana Baru on 15 January 1886, about
3,000 Muslims, in defiance of the law, buried a Muslim child there,
‘Subsequently the crowd attacked fifteen policemen who had followed the
funeral procession, injuring several of them. Later that day a crowd of
Mustims and Christians broke into the Dutch Reformed Church (DRC)
cemetery, which had also been closed. Watched by the police, the group
of ‘street urchins and hobbledehoys" buried the remains of a ‘young white
boy’ (Bickford-Smith 1989, p. 17). This uprising continued for several
days and led to the imprisonment of Burns.

‘There are three significant elements in this uprising: the interfaith
dimensions; the Muslim insistence on viewing politics and religion as two
distinct forces and the Muslim willingness to defy the law when it
appeared to be in opposition to Islam.

‘The Dutch Reformed Church resented what it perceived to be
English interference in Church property rights and was by that period
already part of the Afrikaner vanguard against British imperialism. They,
however, specifically excluded Muslims from their organized opposition
to the various health laws promulgated at the time, The records of the
Muslim Cemetery Board of this period also do not give any indication
that they discussed the idea of joint protest. However, when the uprising
actually occurred, scant regard was given by ordinary Muslims and
Christians to religious barriers and the newspapers referred to ‘crowds of
Malays and coloured people’ (Cape Times, 19 January 1886), What
appears to have happened was that a spontancous solidarity of action
among the marginalized took place without (perhaps despite) the reli-
gious leadership of these two communities.” ‘This should not really be
surprising, given that the Muslims have lived alongside the Christian
Other throughout their presence in the Cape. "Now we come to the great

Liberation & Pluralism

problem,” said a Christian missionary about this shared existence.
‘Christians and Moslems live next door to each other and often rent
rooms in the same house. They grow up from childhood together’
(Hampson 1934, p, 273). Burns reflected the general local Muslim dif-
ferentiation between religion and politics. It was state intervention in the
ritual aspects of their religious lives that provoked their ire. Muslims in
the nineteenth century were clearly prepared to fight for their faith, 2
faith interpreted in a narrow manner and one which accepted a dichoto-
my between God and Caesar. Despite the importance Muslims attached
to the constitutional process and to being law-abiding citizens, when it
appeared as if the law was undermining their faith, they were willing to
defy it, Several reasons explain this new collective Muslim response to
protect supposedly purely religious practices from encroaching political
authority: their demographic increase, the growth in their socio-economic
and concomitant political status and the concurrent decrease in state
authority during this period.

Beyond Proxies to ‘One of Our Own’

By the latter part of the nineteenth century, the Muslim elite, like other
black elites, firmly believed in the legitimacy of the constitutional process
and in justice through participation in it. The period from 1882 up to the
Cemetery Uprising thus saw protracted legal struggles, which consisted
of public meetings, petitions and meetings with the governor, parliamen-
tary officials and local authorities. This process resumed soon after the
Uprising with a major difference; Muslims now wanted to be represented
by ‘one of themselves’ (ape Lantern, 9 November 1889). Achmat
Effendi’s announcement in 1889 of his parliamentary candidature
marked the beginning of Muslim and (Christian) coloured participation
in parliamentary politics." The Cape Parliament enacted measures
specifically directed agsinst the possibility of his election, thus putting
paid to his attempt." Despite Effendi’s failure to win, ‘the very fact that
he stood’, says Lewis, ‘revealed a new political self-confidence amongst
some blacks in the Cape’ (1987, p. 11).

In August 1892, a large meeting mainly attended by Muslims under
the leadership of Ozair Aly, denounced the Franchise and Ballot Act of
1892. ‘The Act raised the franchise qualifications in order to exclude the
large number of Blacks in the recently annexed Transkeian Territories. In
the same year, the Coloured People’s Association (CPA) was founded
‘out of this opposition. Headed by Aly, this was the first national coloured
political organization. The CPA's supporters were predominantly

The Contest

Muslim, although it sought broad coloured support (Bickford-Smith
1989, p. 23). Both the Cemetery Uprising and the formation of the CPA
reflect the fusion between Muslim and coloured political identities that,
under Muslim leadership, was beginning by the tum of the twentieth
century. For most Mustims this socio-political relationship precluded the
need for them to organize separately.”

The Son of Slaves Mobilizes the Middle Classes

In 1902, the African Political (later People’s) Organization (APO) was
formed with the objective of defending and promoting coloured rights in
South Africa, In 1905 Dr Abdullah Abdurahman became its president, a
position he held until his death in 1940." According to Lewis, the found-
ing of the APO ‘marked the start of successful black mobilization on a
national scale in the country’ (1987, p. 250). Preceding the ANC by a
decade, it rapidly gathered more than 20,000 members distributed in
over a hundred branches across the country.

Most of the energies of the APO were directed towards the goal of
coloured and Muslim elite integration with white society, The
moral-ideological path of solidarity with the rest of the black community
and a broader black identity was, however, a permanent backdrop to the
APO resolutions and its programme (Lewis 1987, p. 25). Under the
unchallenged leadership of Abdurahman, the APO articulated coloured
elite concerns and aspirations and overcame Muslim-Christian differ-
ences among this class, For the poorer classes, the sheer battle for sur-
vival amidst the ever-increasing hardships resulting from a deluge of dis-
criminatory legislation called for co-operation across religious lines.

A Quickie with White Supremacy

‘The only organized example of Muslim collaboration with white
supremacy is that of the Cape Malay Association (CMA, established in
1923). Already in 1923 its founder, Arshad Gamiet, supported General
Albert Hertzog of the National Party and contested Abdurahman’s seat
in the municipal elections, Later that year, Gamiet and some associates,
‘disillusioned with the APO which was not catering for the needs of the
‘Muslim community’ (Davids 1981, p. 199), formed the CMA. With their
promises of concrete efforts to alleviate the social problems of the
‘Muslim community and with the support of some of the local clerics, the
CMA soon became quite popular with the Muslims.””

Davids attributes the CMA’s collaborative role to the machinations
‘of Hertzog and suggests that their initial objectives were purely socio-

Qur'an, Liberation & Pluralism

religious. ‘Politics’, Davids writes, ‘was the last concern of the CMA’
(1981, p. 208), Davids’ assessment reflects an inadequate appreciation of
the nature of politics. Any organization born in disillusionment with the
APO had to be political. Within a context of conflicting ideologies, the deci-
sion to withdraw from a particular organization, knowing that such with
drawal would support an opposing ideology, is clearly a political option.
More significantly, Davids ignores the fact that the basic ingredients of
political ideology are pervasive in society and operate in a range of manifes-
tations from the blatant to the more subtle. Although often unintended at a
conscious level, the divestment of socio-religious concems from their politi~
cal ingredients usually has the effect of supporting an iniquitous status quo.
In this regard the Muslim community of South Africa is no exception,

By 1925 the CMA had sixteen branches throughout the country.
‘However’, says Lewis, ‘it was never as closely linked to the Nationalist
Party as its Christian counterpart, the Afrikaner National Bond, was’
(1987, p. 131). By 1926, it expressed its opposition to any legislation
based on the principle of race, creed or class and by the time of its
demise in 1945 it was back in the non-collaborationist camp.

From Appeals for Reform to Calls for Revolution

‘The APO's battles were all couched in moderate terms; they protested
against iniquities within the system rather than challenging the system
itself. With every successive government adding to the arsenal of discrim-
inatory laws and every election producing an even more racist regime
than its predecessor, challenge to the APO’s commitment to protest-
appeal politics was inevitable. By the late 1930s, dissatisfaction with the
APO policies and a new wave of discriminatory legislation led to the for-
mation of alternative organizations. These groups were committed to
‘mobilizing the Coloureds to support the strategies of working class unity
and direct action such as strikes, boycotts and demonstrations’ (Lewis
1987, p. 181). The young coloured radicals were organized in two
groups, both led by Muslims. Zainunnisa Gool, Abdurahman’s daughter,
led @ pragmatic faction that blended class-struggle rhetoric with
reformist-welfare activities. The ‘more theoretically inclined and ideolog-
ically stringent faction’ (ibid.) was led by Dr Golam Gool, her brother-
in-law, and his wife, Hawa Ahmad, Both these factions combined in
1935 to form the National Liberation League (NLL) with Dr Waradia
Abdurahman, another of Abdurahman’s daughters, being instrumental in
setting up its Women’s Bureau.”

‘The formation of the NLL, which partly contributed to the growing

militancy within the ANC itself, heralded a new phase in black politics in
South Africa; a phase which rejected white guardianship over Blacks.
‘This period saw great stress on non-racial working-class unity and the use
of mass direct action to oppose racial discrimination. The most lasting
legacy of this group and of its more abiding successor, the Non-European
Unity Movement (NEUM, established in 1943) was the formulation of
the policy of non-collaboration, Until the unbanning of the ANC in
1990, this policy was to shape black politics and even the contours of a
nascent Islamic theology of liberation in the 1980s.

In 1943, the government announced proposals for a Coloured
Advisory Council. The NLL and all its allies rejected the proposals,
denouncing them as a substitute for extended coloured franchise rights
and the beginnings of a Coloured Affairs Department (CAD). Supporters
of these proposals were denounced as “Judases’, ‘yes men’ and ‘quislings’
to be boycotted by the community, as an anti-CAD bulletin explained,
‘Don’t have any social or personal intercourse with them. Don't greet
them. Don’t have any conversations with them. Don't visit them, and
don’t invite them to your home. Don’t meet them even if it's necessary to
cross over to the other side of the street, Don’t see them, even if you
come face to face with them’ (Cape Standard, 4 May 1943). This doc-
trine of militant and uncompromising mass protest action and non-col-
Jaboration, subsequently adopted by the ANC in 1948, was to shape the
face of black resistance and would eventually be responsible for the politi-
cal successes experienced in later years.

My interest here, which I will develop later in this chapter, is with the
implications of this doctrine for Muslims and their sense of community in
the Cape, The idea of a religious community connected by Ges of faith
was now being subtly challenged by the doctrine of non-collaboration.
‘Community’ began to imply participants in a common struggle for jus-
tice and the Other were those who collaborated in apartheid structures.
As the struggle against apartheid progressed, the question ‘Who is my
brother or my sister?’ acquired a decisive dimension.

Yes, But We're Muslims!

Several factors combined to result in the emergence of a politically aware
tendency among young Muslims who, while they were determined to
struggle alongside the rest of the oppressed, also wanted to do so from an
Islamic perspective. Although the Abdurahmans and the Gools were
prominent Muslim personalities, Islam as an ideology did not play a visi-
ble role in their political activity, nor did they appeal to the Muslim

Qur'an, Liberar

alism

community to work for a just society from an avowedly Islamic perspec
tive. With the clearer Marxist doctrinal accentuation of the National
Liberation League and later the NEUM, the young Muslim intellectuals,
on the whole, did not feel comfortable in these circles.” The NEUM did
‘not have the appeal to Mustims of the APO, whose influence was now on
the wane. Furthermore, for the working-class Muslims, the overwhelm-
ingly middle-class base of the NEUM and its ‘inability to cast oratory in
popular symbolism’ (Jeppie 1987, p. 84) made it largely irrelevant.

‘The emergence of a Muslim identity contributed to the search for an
Islamic response to apartheid. This development accompanied the
growth of a middle class and transcended the old Malay-Indian division.
Fuelling the growth of this Muslim identity was the increase in mission
ary attacks on Islam and a number of specifically anti-Muslim measures
by Christians.” The savagery of forced removals experienced by the black
community from 1958 onwards resulted in Muslims being uprooted from
their ancestral homes and disconnected from their mosques, the centres
of Muslim community life. These hardships gave an impetus to the artic-
ulation of an organized and progressive Islam seen in the formation of the
District Six-based Cape Muslim Youth Movement (CMYM, established
in 1957) and the Claremont Muslim Youth Association (CMYA, estab-
lished in 1958). Prominent in these attempts was a cleric, Imam
Abdullah Haron (d. 1969) who later became one of the liberation strug~
gle’s most significant martyrs.

Like all their progressive predecessors, both of these organizations
recognized and valued the unity of the oppressed. In September 1961, in
response to a DRC attack on Islam, they issued a statement saying: ‘We
see in this attack on Islam a deliberate attempt to drive a wedge between
us and other non-Islamic groups with whom we have hitherto lived in
peace, harmony and friendship” (Muslim News, 29 September 1961). The
unity of the oppressed was also a reason offered in the rejection of the
1961 invitation from the then Malaysian prime minister for the ‘Malays’
to ‘return’ to Malaysia. ‘Their [the Cape Muslims’) life and future’,
replied one of the CYMA leaders, ‘are inextricably tied up with the rest
of the non-whites because they have suffered the same humiliation and
oppression’ (Fakhry 1961, p. 7).

Meanwhile, South African society was becoming more repressive and
the government increasingly intransigent. On 21 March 1960 in
Sharpeville, police killed sixty-nine unarmed Blacks and wounded anoth-
er one hundred and eighty-six during demonstrations against the pass
laws organized by the Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC). This was followed

The Context

by the banning of the ANC and the PAC as well as the detention of thou-
sands of activists.

In response to the repression and, perhaps mainly, to the hardships
of the Group Areas Act, the CMYM and the CMYA organized a series of
huge public meetings. At the first of these on 7 May 1961, the Call of
Islam was launched and thousands of copies of a declaration against the
injustices of apartheid were distributed.” The Call of Islam, a movement
rather than an organization, however, did not survive for longer than a
year. However, both the CMYA and the CMYM continued to play an
important role in the development of a socially and politically relevant
Islam. Their members later spearheaded the formation of the Cape
Islamic Federation (CIF, established in 1962). When challenged by the
CIF to adopt a firm stand against apartheid, the clerics, organized in the
‘Muslim Judicial Couneil (MJC), denounced their challenge as ‘youthful
impetuosity’ (Muslim News, 31 July 1964), The collaborationist position
of the clerics is reflected in a Muslim News editorial;

Has the government forbidden the worship of Allah? Has the gov-
‘ernment closed down or ordered the demolition of any mosque in a
declared white area? If our government has ordered our Muslims to
desert the faith of our forefathers, then our wlema would have been
the first to urge us to resist, even to death. (ibid.)

‘A number of factors led to bitterness and demoralization on the part of
the members of these progressive formations and resulted in their gradual
demise by the mid-1960s. They might have succeeded in having a more
lasting impact on the emergence of a progressive Islam if the objective
socio-political conditions had been more favourable. The early 196
though, was a period when South Africa experienced its most ferocious
period of repression and persecution. ‘The Sabotage Act, introduced in
1962, provided for prolonged detention without trial while the ‘90-day'
Act of 1963 virtually abrogated habeas corpus, With the capture of Nelson
Mandela, Walter Sisulu and other ANC leaders on 11 July 1963, and
their subsequent sentence to life imprisonment, the liberation movement
‘was dealt a crippling blow. ‘By the mid 1960s", noted Lodge and Nasson,
‘the government had not only uprooted most of the underground but had
also demoralized and routed the entire radical opposition’ (1991, p. 6).

The Killing of the Imam

For the Muslim community the most direct and far reaching manifesta-
tion of this political repression was the murder of Imam Abdullah Haron

Qur'an. Liberation & Pluralism

bby the security police in 1969, after four months in detention. The general
demoralization of progressive forces throughout the country is also reflect-
ed in Muslim responses to Haron’s martyrdom. Thirty thousand people
attended his funeral. All the speakers at the funeral and Muslim News, the
paper he had edited, eulogized his fine character. About the manner of his
death, the cause that he died for or the crime of detention without trial,
there was only silence; a silence which was to endure for another six years.
‘The silence of the clergy around the martyrdom of Haron led to a deep
sense of betrayal and disillusionment on the part of young Muslims. It was
left to an Anglican minister to stir the consciences of Muslims and all South
Africans. Deeply concerned about the circumstances around Haron’s
death, Benard Wrankmore ‘wrestled with himself and with God’ (De La
Hunt 1984, p. 6). Seeking refuge in a Muslim shrine on top of Signal Hill
overlooking Cape Town, Wrankmore undertook a forty-day fast,
demanding a judicial inquiry into Haron’s death. With the government
unimpressed after forty days, he vowed to fast unto death unless it relented.
On the sixty-seventh day, after the pleadings of numerous South Africans,
and ‘acting on his inner guidance’ (ibid., p. 10), Wrankmore broke his fast,
‘The regime remained unmoved and many a young Muslim was deeply
touched by the witness for justice of a profoundly committed Chnistian,

Farewell to Collaboration

‘The period starting from 1970 may justifiably be described as the era
which led to the demise of apartheid. The early 1970s saw the birth of a
new generation of activists committed to the doctrine of Black
Consciousness (BC). The BC movement, rejecting any role for Whites in
the liberation struggle, gradually began to fill some of the void caused by
the banning of the ANC and the PAC in 1962 and the virtual collapse of
the NEUM. A wave of strikes in Durban in 1973 produced a new gener-
ation of trade union activists which led to the liberalization of the laws
restricting black trade unions,

In an interesting example of theology following socio-political devel-
opments, this period witnessed a number of black theologians advocating
Black ‘Theology, a form of liberation theology.” Black Theology, accord-
ing to its advocates, is intended to be both “a theoretical weapon of strug.
gle in the hands of the exploited black masses’ (Mosala 1986, p. 175) and
a theology of ‘praxis which emerges in the heat of the historical struggles
of Black Christian workers and peasants" (Mofokeng 1990, p. 38)

Despite the March 1973 crackdown on the BC movement, the ban-
ning of eight of its leaders and the killing in 1977 of Steve Biko, its most

The Context

articulate advocate, the movement played a crucial role in advancing the
struggle for self-respect and dignity among the oppressed. Its mobilization
against the imposition of the Afrikaans language as the means of education
in black schools and what was widely regarded as ‘gurter education’, cul-
minated in the country-wide uprisings in June 1976. These uprisings per-
manently changed the course of South Africa’s political furure and, with
it, the direction of the country’s nascent Islamist movements.

Just as South African Christians committed to justice derived inspira-
tion and guidance from liberation theology emerging in Latin America
and elsewhere, Muslims were inspired by a theology of revolt against neo-
colonialism and dictatorship.” At an international level, the 1970s saw
the emergence of Islam as a global political force, its most visible mani-
festation being the Iranian revolution. Among young South African
‘Muslims the works of the Iranian revolutionary, ‘Ali Shari‘ati (4. 1977)
were widely read and discussed in halagat (study circles), as were those of
ideologues connected to the Islamist movements, such as Sayyid Qutb
(d, 1966), the Egyptian scholar martyred by Nasser’s regime, and the
Pakistani founder of the Jama‘at-I-Islami, Abul-A‘la Mawdudi (d. 1979),
In these halagat young Muslims began to view Islam as an ideological
option for a future South Africa.

The Islamic fundamentalism engendered by both the Iranian revolu-
tion in particular, and the Islamist movement in general, also implied a reli-
gious exclusivism which denied any virtue in those outside Islam. Coming
at a time of heightening political awareness and activity, it was inevitable
that tensions would arise between Muslim fundamentalists and other
Muslims who were prepared to work with the religious Other. The impact
of local political realities and international Islamist ideological trends led to
the emergence of diverse tendencies within the local house of Islam. In the
midst of this diversity though, it was clear that most Muslims were increas-
ingly identifying with the broader liberation movements in the country. It
‘was a time of deep searching for a South African expression of Islam.

During the 1970s, the movement for a socially relevant Islam was
epitomized by both the Muslim Youth Movement (MYM, established in
1970 and unrelated to the earlier one based in District Six) and the
‘Muslim Students Association (MSA, established in 1974). These organi-
zations expressed their opposition to apartheid from time to time.” The
local formightly, Muslim News, underwent a complete metamorphosis in
1975; it started to project a radical and dynamic Islam while vigorously
promoting BC, often using qur'anic texts in its editorials for this purpose.
‘The MYM, MSA and Muslim News were to play a significant role in

Qur'an, Liberation & Pluralism

spawning or supporting both Qibla (established in 1981) and the Call of
Islam (established in 1984 and unrelated to the campaign launched in
1961). While the MYM and MSA also consistently articulated their
opposition to apartheid, the sheer scale of the work of the Call of Islam
and the militant rhetoric which accompanied Qibla's involvement
ensured that these two organizations became synonymous with Muslim
opposition to apartheid in the 1980s.

New Deal? No Deal!

Opposition to tricameralism needs to be located within the framework of
the overall organization against apartheid during this period.” Lodge and
Nasson (1991, pp. 35-40) cite several factors that ensured that the 1976
uprisings were to be merely the catalysts of the events that were to propel
South Africa into an era of non-racialism and democracy within a period
of less than twenty years: 1) the extraordinary political ascendancy of
young black South Africans who lacked any ‘direct memories of the polit-
ical defeats or the social helplessness of black communities in an earlier
era’ (ibid., p. 38); 2) the economic recession of the late 1970s and early
1980s, which brought about @ huge upswing in strike activity; 3) the
aggressive police interventions in the strikes mentioned above, which
‘added a bitter political dimension to industrial conflict and tended wo
politicize the workers’ (ibid.); 4) union-inspired consumer boycotts
which stimulated township politics; 5) the growth of trade unionism,
which ‘introduced a greater degree of leadership accountability, democratic
participation and organizational structure’ (ibid.) and 6) the proliferation of
civic organizations which often began as small ad hoc groups to tackle high
rents, the lack of electricity and high public transport fares.

Despite the fact that the above constituencies (j.¢., youth, local com-
‘munities and unions) have often been treated separately for organizing
Purposes and notwithstanding the tensions that often characterized the
relationship between them, they were thoroughly interconnected, For
example, the unionists were often the initiators of community civic
organizations and youth activists enforced union-initiated consumer
boycotts, This was also the nature of the interaction between these con
stituencies and various religious communities. Many of these activists
were deeply religious people who influenced and were influenced by
their own religious structures and organizations.

‘This period thus also saw a number of developments on the religious
front which had a significant impact on the liberation struggle. Among
these were the founding of Jews for Justice; the increasing involvement of

The Context

the South African Council of Churches (SAC) in programmes to pro-
mote political awareness and assist the victims of repression; the increas-
ingly militant tenor of religious organizations’ statements and their sup-
port for economic sanctions; the rise to prominence of religious leaders
such as the Reverend Allan Boesak, the Reverend Frank Chikane, Imam
Hassan Solomon, Manibhen Sita and Sister Bernadette Ncube, who were
deeply committed to the cause of political liberation and to the non-racial
United Democratic Front (UDF, established in 1983). The establish-
ment of the Institute of Contextual Theology, (ICT) also marked a new
development in South African liberation theology. Contextual Theology,
with its non-racial orientation, rather than Black Theology, the religious
appendix of BC, became the dominant theme among most politically
‘engaged Christian theologians. All of these factors ensured that the 1980s
were to be the decade of freedom from white domination. Some observers
have correctly remarked that, while ‘the long struggle for black political
rights in SA has been marked by several critical turning points . . . none
‘was as crucial, or as dramatic as the events of the 1980s. . . It was the
decade when the pillars of apartheid finally gave way under social, eco-
nomic and political pressures from the black majority" (Lodge and
Nasson 1991, p, 3).

While the political, demographic and economic strength of Blacks
had been growing in the 1970s, it was only in the 1980s that “a new
determination and new tactics took hold’ (ibid). The year 1983 brought
in the "New Deal’, a government ‘reform’ scheme to co-opt Coloureds
and Indians as junior partners in apartheid while the Blacks were expected
to exercise ‘independence’ in the most arid and barren thirteen per cent of
the country. The majority of South Africans viewed this as an attempt to
destroy any potential for political unity among the oppressed without
conceding any real power to the state’s newly co-opted partners.

‘The New Deal brought about the large-scale mobilization of people
against apartheid, the like of which the country had never witnessed
before. This was also the period when the ANC re-emerged as an impor-
tant element in the internal struggle against apartheid. A host of commu-
nity, student and religious organizations committed to the Freedom
‘Charter, the ANC policy document, emerged and seized on various local
issues to heighten opposition to apartheid. ‘These organizations operated
under the banner of the UDF,

One such Muslim organization was the Call of Islam, an offshoot
from the MYM-MSA. Founded in June 1984 by a small group of dissi-
dents who refused to sever their links with the UDF,” the Call soon

Qur'an, Liberation & Pluralism

New Deal? No Deal!

The Context

One such Muslim organization was the Call of Islam, an offshoot
from the MYM-MSA. Founded in June 1984 by a small group of dissi-
dents who refused to sever their links with the UDF,” the Call soon

Qur Liberation & Pluralism
became the most vociferous and organized Muslim group resisting
apartheid. Mass rallies, public meetings, the Friday sermon, door-to-door
campaigns, funerals for victims of police brutality, boycotts, street upris-
ings and a regular flood of religio-political pamphlets characterized their
contribution, Several prominent religious leaders who belonged to the
Call campaigned around the country against the New Deal and exhorted
the Muslims to make common cause with the oppressed, Virtually all of
their programmes were organized in concert with, or with the support of,
their allies in the UDF.

Apartheid Divides! UDF Unites!

‘The introduction of tricameralism in 1984 and the ensuing nationwide
revolt seemed to be the cue for Muslims to make their final break with
apartheid and to identify with the oppressed. The UDF, with its appeal
for all people to unite against the tricameral system, attracted Muslim
leaders such as Imam Hassan Solomon, Shaikh Abdul Gamiet Gabler
and Ebrahim Rasool and myself, The UDF created the conditions
required for various sectors of the society to enter the struggle while
retaining their own identities because it acted as a political front,” Rasool
explained the relationship between political organization and religious
awareness in the following manner: "The UDF taught us that it takes a
ot of grassroots organization to create the conditions whereby Muslims
will take their rightful place in the struggle. It does not simply take an
appeal from the Que’an to create revolutionaries among Muslims. That
[involvement) is the product of social conditions, theological reflection
and organization’ (1988b, p. 34). His statement is significant, for it
encapsulates the basis of the emerging South African Islamic theology
and qur’anic hermeneutic of liberation, The Qur'an, in order to be
socially meaningful, is in need of moments within history. One such
moment was now being forged within a context of oppression and strug-
gle for liberation, a struggle shared by others outside the house of Islam.
Far from being a unified response of solidarity with the oppressed
Other, this struggle also evoked considerable controversy within the
‘Muslim community and ‘unleashed a feverish flow of pamphlets and
statements which flooded the mosques and homes of the Muslim com-
munity’ (Tayob 1990, p. 31). None of the arguments articulated in pub-
lic attempted to justify apartheid, though. The conservatives, instead,
focused on a number of other issues in order to express their seemingly
religious concerns. These included the intermingling of sexes during anti-
apartheid rallies, the need to strengthen one’s faith as a precondition for

political’change, the problem of the communist presence in the ranks of
the anti-apartheid movernent and the need to obey the lawful authority in
order to avert fitmah (disorder). Above all, there was the argument of reli-
gious exclusivism. ‘How can we stand together with the Christians,
Hindus and Jews?”

‘The South African socio-political culture, with the all-pervasive ide-
ology of a” “heid had polarized its people to an unprecedented extent,
‘The struggic against apartheid had a similar effect, albeit along entirely
different lines. The social ostracism to punish collaborators, first
espoused during the anti-CAD campaign in the 1940s was now being
revived: ‘collaborators’ versus *comrades’. People on both sides of the
divide had ‘Muslim’, ‘Hindu’, ‘Christian’ or ‘Jewish’ names. The formi-
dable presence of religious figures and organizations and, especially, the
unprecedented Muslim-Christian religious solidarity that now formed an
integral part of this struggle, ensured that questions of identity, affiliation
and community assumed a stark and new dimension,

‘The formation of the UDF in 1983 and the subsequent visible partic~
ipation of Muslims side by side with the religious Other, led to consider-
able debate and acrimony amongst some of the organized and activist
‘Muslims who opposed this affinity with the religious Other. Fundamental
theological issues, such as the nature of faith and the meaning of the fel-
lowship of the wmmah (community), arose and were regularly alluded to
but were seldom examined in a systematic manner.

At both a theological and political level, the issues of faith and identity
were vividly illustrated in August 1984 when nineteen religious leaders
were arrested while defying a ban on entry into the black township of
Gugulethu. What happened after we were taken to the cells at the Wynberg.
‘Magistrate's Court marks that day as particularly significant for the South
African interreligious experience. Guarded by twelve uniformed policemen,
nineteen of us, united in our quest for a just society, but belonging to dif-
ferent religious groups, discovered our common commitment to, and need
of, God. Allan Boesak began by reading scripture, the Reverend Lionell
Louw led the group in singing, Hassan Solomon prayed and I preached.
‘We then rose and sang the anthem of the liberation movement, Nkosi
Sikelel’ Afrika (God Bless Africa).

We discovered each other: diverse in faiths but comrades in the
struggle. Nineteen small people waiting in a cold cell on a magistrate
. . . Here we experienced dialogue between religions on the highest
plane. In eight hours, years of suspicion and mistrust were shattered.
(Esack 1986, p. 54)

@ tion & Pluralism

Libs

Within the Muslim community the march and subsequent arrests
brought into focus the debate about the theological correctness of joint
action with the religious Other against apartheid. Expressions of the com-
mitment to work alongside the religious Other were seen in Muslim lead-
ers addressing UDF rallies, joint mobilization against state structures,
‘street action’ and formal decisions by the Call to affiliate to the UDF. At
a more overtly religious level, the presence of leading Christian leaders
such as Boesak ar Call meetings and of Muslim clerics in churches, as
well as at the large number of interfaith services, accentuated the interre~
ligious witness against oppression. The formation of the South African
chapter of an international interfaith organization, the World Conference
on Religion and Peace (WCRP) in 1984 served to provide a forum to
deepen this solidarity and to explore the theological diversity that came
along with it. Together with the Call, WCRP came to symbolize this
commitment to interfaith involvement in the struggle against apartheid,

Side by Side on the Long Walk

The Call played the most significant role in persuading Muslims to
accept the political necessity of, and theological legitimacy for, interfaith
solidarity. It also broke new ground in South Africa with its unambiguous:
embracing of Christians and Jews as “brothers and sisters’ and ‘believers’,
‘The Call's first information brochure states that ‘Non-Muslims have
shed their blood to oppose the brutality of apartheid and to work for a
just South Africa, We are then committed to work side by side with oth-
ers for the destruction of apartheid society” (Call of Islam 1984, p. 4).
‘This commitment to work with the Other went beyond a functional or
utilitarian relationship, to the acceptance of the theological legitimacy of
other faiths. Thus Solomon, then chair of the Call, said:

All the messengers of Allsh formed a single brotherhood. Their mes-
sage is essentially one and their religion and teachings are one . .
Let us enter the future as brothers and sisters in the struggle. May
Allah . .. strengthen all the believers in Him {emphasis mine] . . .
until freedom and justice is concrete for all the oppressed in our
country. (Solomon 1985, p. 5)

‘The South African chapter of the then Geneva-based WCRP was initiat-
ed by Bishop Desmond Tutu in 1983. This initiative was continued by
three South Africans” who attended the Interfaith Colloquium on
Apartheid convened in 1984 by Archbishop Trevor Huddleston, regard-
ed by many as the father of the international solidarity movement against

The

reat

apartheid: The organization's anti-triumphalism, commitment to dia-
logue within the framework of resistance to apartheid and opposition to
religious syncretism were some of the factors that facilitated its accep-
tance among progressive Islamists. More important was its commitment
to unite religious people in the struggle against apartheid.

‘The organization located itself among those ‘conducting dialogue
around practical matters’ such as justice and peace, sharing the convic~
tion that ‘doctrines divide but humanity unites’ (Lubbe 1988, p. 16).
WCRE, furthermore, did not view itself as ‘an exercise in abstract inter~
faith dialogue focusing merely on the analysis of religious concepts or
customs . . , but proceeds from joint commitment to the struggle for jus~
tice and peace in South Africa." (Kritzinger 1991a). WCRP soon
emerged as the South African forum for interreligious dialogue between
religious leaders who were also committed to the struggle for justice,
‘Through its regular forums, it also supplied believers with a theological
appreciation of the Other. It is significant that at the time of the forma-
tion of WCRP the Interfaith Forum was already in existence in Cape
‘Town and the Call was aware of it. The Interfaith Forum, though, was
essentially a dialogue group and the WCRP initiators in the Cape con-
sciously decided on setting up an alternative structure that would focus
on interfaith solidarity in the struggle against apartheid.

The Lone Rangers

‘Those who had previously quietly argued for collaboration with apartheid
or against fimah (disorder) now shifted the discourse to solidarity with
the religious Other, a development which had by then become synony-
mous with resistance to apartheid. (In this respect Muslim discourse par-
alleled an earlier Christian one in the coloured community. During the
first half of the twentieth century, anti-interfaith polemic was the stan-
dard fare of conservative Christian coloured politicians who supported
apartheid, then known as the ‘colour bar’.) Parallel to this politically and
religiously conservative discourse ran another fundamentalist one, differ-
ent in origin and orientation, bur having the same outcome: a rejection of
interfaith solidarity against apartheid.

Both of these discourses relied extensively on a number of qur'anic
texts to support religious exclusivism in general and antipathy to
Christians and Jews in particular. The Qur'an, as heavily contested text,
once again had its role confirmed as the ultimate hujah (argument) and
burhan (proof) of truth, and, by implication, self-correctness.

‘The conservative response to interfaith solidarity against apartheid

Liberation & Pluralism

can best be described as obscurantist paranoia, which ‘spawned its own
form of political discourse, complete in itself and immune to rational
argument’ (Pipes 1989). The conservative attitude is reflected in the fol-
lowing quotation:

Those Muslims who have been misled by the political leaders of the
Kuffar and coaxed into anarchical movements of non-Muslims fol-
low kaafir thought and kaafir methods . . . In joining the political
organizations of the kufaar, Muslims are following the path of kufr
and baaril [falsehood] . . . Islam, therefore, does not permit its
adherents to amalgamate with the organizations of kufr and anarchy.
(Majlis n.d., 7 (2), p. 8)

‘The Majlis, an Eastern Cape-based tabloid, resorted to a combination of
religious and political ideas to condemn the ‘sinfuulness of interfaith solidar-
ity against apartheid’ (Moosa 1989, p. 79). Kufr was linked with political
destabilization which, in tur, fused with fimah, the well-utilized charge of
conservative traditionalism to invoke against any form of fundamental
change (Majlis n.d., 8 (9), p. 7). This opposition to ‘misled Muslims’ who
had been ‘coaxed into the anarchical movements of the Kuffaar’ (ibid.)
was equally reflective of its own political position: one of sympathy towards
the South African right-wing and collaborationist elements:

While the group on the right of kigffaar politics collaborate primarily for
pecuniary gain, the left collaborate with communists and Christian
priests for nafsani {carnal} gains or riya show) and rakabbur [arrogance]
- «The real danger to the Islamic way of life however] is posed by col-
laborators with Auffar political organizations on the left. (Tbid.)

The Majlis evidently distinguished between different types of collabora-
tion with Aufr; it was not so much interfaith activity per se which earned
the Call the wrath of The Majlis and its supporters, but interfaith solidari~
ty against apartheid.

Coupled with the notion of Islam as an ideological option for a future
South Africa was a religious exclusivism denying the potential for virtue
in non-Islam. The radical fundamentalist discourse was based on a rejec-
tion of all the values of non-Islam, including that of the ruling class. This
discourse was also confident that Islam could, and, indeed ought, to con-
front the world of ku/r. Here one may note that the rejection of racialism
and exploitation was incidental to this discourse. The essential radical
fundamentalist critique was that these values did not belong to the realm
of Islam, All forms of opposition to apartheid not rooted in Islam were,

The Context

therefore; similarly to be eschewed and opposed.

The MYM-MSA and Qibia denounced the Call's commitment to
interfaith solidarity and proposed an alternative Muslims-only front
against apartheid (Muslim Youth Movement 1983, p. 17). The
MYM-MSA argued that the Muslims’ struggle involved both a specifi-
cally Islamic form of justice as well as a uniquely Islamic methodology.
‘To co-operate with the religious Other in any ideological struggle, they
argued, necessarily resulted in a dilution of one’s Islam. In a widely cir-
culated and, in MYM-MSA circles, commonly accepted, unpublished
position paper, ‘United Democratic Front: An Islamic Critique’,
Bradlow outlined the following objections to alliances with the religious
Other in general and with the UDF in particular. First, political alliances
have as their ‘implicit strategy the maintenance of kafir [sic]* (Bradlow
1984, p. 9) and will prevent the ‘presentation of Islam [to the
oppressed] as the major liberating power’ (ibid., p. 10). Second, in affili-
ating themselves to the UDF as religious organizations, Muslim groups
have reduced Islam ‘to the level of a religion in the western sense of the
word [and have] submitted to the secularist ideology [and denied] the
complete nature of Islam’ (ibid.). Third, the concept of democracy is not
only ‘alien to the framework of Islamic government but acknowledging it
is tantamount to an act of shirk [polytheism], associating others with
Allah for He Alone is Sovereign’ (ibid., p. 6).

There are several ideological assumptions characteristic of Muslim
fundamentalism in these positions, the most significant being the notions
that non-Islam is necessarily void of virtue and that freedom outside the
parameters of Islam is of no consequence. Furthermore, they argued that
the supposed representatives of God on earth can govern others without
their consent. A brief look at some of the positions adopted by the
MYM-MSA and Qibla with regard to their understanding of Islam gives
a clearer idea of their response to the Call’s relationship with the Other in
general, and, more specifically, with the UDF. The MYM-MSA opposi-
tion to apartheid was based on a combination of ethico-religious indigna-
tion at racialism and sympathy for the oppressed. Furthermore, they had
4 passionate belief that only liberation along the path of Islam would be of
any consequence.” As for Qibla, inspired by the 1979 events in Iran, it
emerged a5 a militant and fundamentalist force which simultaneously sup-
ported BC and the notion of Islamic revolution. Qibla, although uniting
with the MYM-MSA in their denunciation of the Call’s commitment to
interfaith solidarity, based their opposition on an entirely different premise.
‘They argued that alliances are based on the burying of differences ‘and

Qur'an, Liberation & Pluralism

that to plead for the burial of ideological differences is to plead for the
burial of our methods of struggle . . . The smmah as an ideological com-
munity never buries its ideological differences bur seeks to clarify them’
(Riter 1983, p. 2). A perusal of their pamphlets and writings, however,
reveals that Qibla’s essential objection was directed at the Call-UDF
alliance, whose political perspectives it opposed, Concomitantly, they
defended all the positions of BC-PAC, presenting all its arguments in
Islamic revolutionary terms.”

The Turning of the Tide

We may note that WCRP received a less acrimonious reception from
most of the organized Muslims than its most prominent affiliate, the Call.
WCRP’s affinity for a Muslim community engaged in an anti-apartheid
struggle was evident on a number of occasions, thus enhancing the orga-
nization’s acceptability to the Muslim community.” While WCRP was
making common cause with Muslims it was simultaneously pursuing a
less often stated objective: that of drawing various religious communities
closer into the anti-apartheid struggle

From 1987 onwards, al-Qalam started giving WCRP positive cover-
age. The following year, the MYM also accepted an invitation to present
an Islamic perspective at a three-day WCRP consultation on ‘The Role
of Believers in the Struggle’. This participation was in line with their
newly developed position, which viewed “interfaith links as vital in
enhancing their common aspirations for a just South Africa where the
dignity of all will be championed* (Mustim Youth Movement 1987). By
1989, with the exception of The Majlis and its allies, the groundswell
acceptance of interfaith solidarity had eroded much of the initial resis-
tance to it. The sheer force of a grassroots commonalty in the midst of an
‘arduous struggle and the impending victory of the anti-apartheid forces
seemed to have relegated the controversy tw the drawing rooms of a few
clerics, the classrooms of the few religious seminaries in South Africa and
the portals of academia,

Conclusion: The Issues

In addition to this historical overview, by way of summary I want to high-
light some of the pertinent issues for a qur'anic hermeneutic of religious
pluralism for liberation.

Firstly, there is an intrinsic link between conservative theology and
status quo ideology, however unjust or immoral the latter may be. In the

The Context

Cape, we observed how both Muslim and Christian religious conserva-
tives tended to be politically conservative and supportive of the status
quo. This was evident in the 1940s when conservative Christian clerics
broke away from the APO to form right-wing support structures for the
NP. In 1961, the MJC also rejected active resistance to apartheid,
because among Muslims that resistance was being led by youth who were
also engaged in the task of finding a new and contextual expression of
Islam. ‘The inverse of this is equally valid: the advocates of religious plu-
ralism and of a contextual appreciation of the Qur'an, from the CMYM
and the CMYA to the Call and later also the MYM, were active in the
struggle against apartheid.

Secondly, the fact of peaceful interreligious coexistence, however
Jong it may have lasted, does not automatically translate into conscious
religious pluralism. From the earliest days of Islam in the Cape, the
Muslims lived side by side with people of other religions, While Islam
had the largest number of converts, there is no proof that Muslims active
ly opposed other faiths or engaged in organized proselytization until the
late 1950s, On the whole, Muslims valued their shared lives with the
Other and were resentful of any attempts to disrupt them. Yet, this has
been accompanied by a sense of religious superiority and a denial of sal-
vation to anyone who did not share their religious affiliation. From this
brief historical overview, it would seem that the fact of social coexistence,
even over centuries, does not detract from very deeply ingrained religious
notions and memories that negate the full humanity of the Other. After
three hundred years of such coexistence, the advocates of religious chau-
vinism could still find a receptive audience among some Muslims. Both
the Calls of Islam bad to work really hard to remind Muslims about their
shared history of suffering with the Other and their responsibility in rec-
ognizing the full humanity of the Other.

Thirdly, Goldziher was probably correct when he wrote that ‘it could
be said about the Qur'an, what . . , Peter Werenfells said [about the
Gospels]: “Everyone searches for his view in the Holy Book" ’ (cited by
al-Sawwaf 1979, p. 142). What cannot be claimed though, is that every-
one finds, or even claims to find, everything that he or she searches for in
the Qur'an, South Africa has not seen a single statement justifying
partheid on the basis of the Qur'an, nor has any Muslim scholar or cler-
ic attempted to justify apartheid on Islamic theological grounds. The fee-
ble and largely undocumented attempts to support the status quo were
based on rejecting the nature of the struggle against apartheid, and argu-
ments for obedience to the lawful authority and the need to avoid fimah.

Qur'an, Liberation & Pluralism

Fourthly, people’s lives are not shaped by a text as much as it is
shaped by the context. Being the victims of colonialism, or simply being
‘Muslims, did not mean that the early Muslims necessarily identified with
the indigenous people. The Khoikhoin were largely subdued after their
first and unsuccessful uprisings against colonialism and the San were
gradually decimated by the middle of the eighteenth century. Many
Muslims, bearing the standard of the Union Jack and the Crescent, were
prepared, even if at times with considerable reluctance, to assist the
colonists in their subjugation of the indigenous people in return for short-
term religious gains.

When it appeared as if the law was undermining their faith, Muslims
were willing to defy it only from the late eighteenth century onwards. A
willingness to defy the law for the sake of Islam thus only occurred under
favourable objective conditions. Earlier Muslims living under a much
more religiously repressive regime in the Cape may have secretly circum-
vented the law to practise their faith, but there is no record of any open
defiance, Similarly, we observe that qur‘anic exhortations to identify with
the oppressed or to rise as God's witness-bearers for justice (4:137; 5:8)
Were mute in the absence of a facilitating context during the time of
Haron’s martyrdom in 1969. Instead, the memory of his death was
reserved for another period when texts praising martyrdom were inces-
santly invoked as calls for Muslim resistance against apartheid.

‘The carly Muslims, their understanding of Islam and their struggles
for survival were shaped by their space and time. In as much as they were
the first Muslims in South Africa, they were also the first local witnesses to
the illusion of an essentialist ahistorical and monolithic Islam. Historically,
the form in which Islam has manifested itself and has had its scripture
interpreted has always varied greatly, ‘The idea of a South African expres
‘sion of the faith and, by extension, a South African qur’anic hermeneutic,
is thus not only plausible, but has, in fact, always been operative.

Notes

|. The work of Achmat Davids (1980, 1984, 1985), although focusing on the Mushms of the
Cape, is probably the most significant in ts regard. Fatma Meer (1969) deals with the histo-
17 of Muslims of Indo-Pak ongin in the northern provinces. Da Costa (1990) has done impar-
tant research on the origins of the first Mushims in South Africa. Naude (1985) and Dangor
(1991) have supplied broad overviews of the demography of South Alrican Musi

2 Throughout this study the word “collaboration” is used in the pejorative sense of co-
‘operation with somedhing negative, in thn case. the colonial powers OF apartheid regime.
‘This is generally the way the term « understood and used in South Africa,

3. F. R. Bradlow and M. Cairns” research into the origins of the early slave population

The

Indicates that ethnically it was ‘a very heterogeneous one ... compoted of negroes from
West Africa. of Bantu speakers from Angola and Mozambique, of Negro Polynesians from
Madagascar, of Indians from Inde. and of varied groups of Polynesian type people from the
Indonesian Archipelago and elsewhere inthe Far East’ (1978, p, 105). leis most Whely char the
majority of Mush by birth came from this eter group.

4. In this context, che term “Malay is protably of linguisbc rather than nationaatic derivation
‘Malayu was the common trading language of the Indonesian Archipelago from where many of
the first Muslims in the Cape hailed (Davids 1981. p. 214). The attempts at the consbution of
a Malay’ echo subject and a critque of the ‘Malay’ identity have been discussed elsewhere
(Lewis 1987; Jeppie 1987; 1988).

5, The Cape was governed by the Statutes of Inda, which prohibited any public expression or
the propagation of any religion other than that of the Durch Reformed tradition. A placaat
(decree) to this effect was issued in 1642 by Jan van Diemen, the Governor General of
‘Ambon, which was Dutch territory n present-day Indonesia. This pacar. whvch was reissued
in 1657 by Johan Mactsuykar and was also applicable to the Cape, stated that offenders were
to be puniahed with death (Shell nd, pp. 2-3). Nearly two centuries ater, in 1828, a local
newspaper stil had cause to lament the plight of the Muslims whose ‘marriages were
declared uniawful, and issues degraded. They were refused citizenship... could not hald
landed property nor remain in the Colony, though born there, without special permission
They were compelled to perform public service gratultously ~ punished at the discretion [of
their masters] with stripes and imprisonment, unable to leave ther, homes without a pass.
‘Heir houses entered and searched at the pleasure cf the police’ (The South African Commerc
‘Advertiser, 26 July 1856, p. 12).

6, Adil Bradlow has shown how the personal ‘assets’ of Musims as servanes were Yorever con-
trasted with what was perceived to be the darker side of thew characcer” (1985, p. 86), While
concern tended to be voiced abou individual acts of violence ‘theres a kubce tense In which
members ofthe ruling lass remained aware of the possibilty of such provest assuming a colec-
Live form (ibid), During the 1980s in South Africa, the stave displayed parvicular fear at the abs
ity of Muses to galvanize fearestly with commurety support (See P. W, Botha 1987)

7, The Mardyckers were brought to the Cape from Amboina in the Mollucan Straits as a
“labour force and to protect the nenly extablshed residency from the marauding indigenous
people” (Davids 1989). Da Costa describes the Mardychers as ‘Malay’ servants of the Dutch
fica who journeyed from the East to the Nethertands’ (1990, p. 48),

8. Another example of such co-opuon in beu of support for religous facihues is that of the
land offer to Frans van Bengalen in 1806. Described as a 'Mohamadoansche Veld Priester”
(Mohammedan field preacher). van Bengalen was granted land in 1B05 on the lower slopes of
Table Mountain as a burial ground for Muslens (Davids 1985. pp. $-6) as a ‘down payment
(or his support 10 the Dutch Subsequently two Javanese (mainly Musiim) arueries under his
command were deployed at the Battle of Blaawberg in 1806, In 1847. Mushrns, the vase
majority of whom were conscripts, participated on the side of the Dutch un what the
Colonists named the Frontier Wars and the Nguni called Wars of Liberation, This participa:
tion was duly acknowledged by General Cloete who thanked the Muclens in 1846 Yor ser~
vices which they have rendered in arms for the protection of the country and the subjugation
of our afi enemies’ (cited in Kolinch 1867. p, 37). In this cate, the ‘thanks for services ren
dered’ assumed the form of another mosque site upon which the Jami/ah Masjid, also known
as the Queen Victoria Mosque, was erected in 1850 (Bradlow 1985, pp. 139-41).

9. This was the frst urban uprising in Whe history of South Anica and both its underlying as
well as immediate causes have been extensively dealt with by Davids (1984), Bradlow (1985)
and Bickford-Smith (1989). in terms of underlying causes, Davids has argued that by the cme
of the 1882 epidemic the Muslims ‘were more sure of their political power’ (1984. p. 51):
Bradlow has located Muslim resistance to the health regulabons within a broader context of
resistance 19 colonial medicine (1985, pp. 202M): Bickford-Smich has suggested that the

Liberat’ & Pluralism

‘economic depression, ‘when discontent born of poverty and hunger was intensified’ may have
been one ofits causes (1989, p. 9). The more immediate reasons for the Cemetery Uprising
may be summarized as follows: I) the comenurity’s rejection of the various preventive health
laws because disease was viewed as a dine affiction against which only God could provide
protection: 2) hospical regulations prohibiting Muslim patients from having hola! food: 3)
‘Muslims who died from smalipex being denied Islamic bural rites and the accompanying ritual
ablutons; 4) reguations demanding that the dead be buried in coffins which Muslims found
‘unacceptable; §) the Tana Baru, the only cemetery within walking diatance of the predomi-
nantly Muslin residential area, being closed in Jancary 1886. Musims considered walling to
the graveyard 1 religious obligation and rejected the akernatve distane sites oflered,

10, The Dutch or nascent Afrikaner community was by this time a part of the underclass in
‘Cape Town and Afrikaans was the language of the poor: In all ikelinood, the white family in
this case belonged to an overwhelmingly Afrikaner class, later to be described as ‘poor
whites" (Davide 1989)

11, The Muslin community inthe Cape by this time comprised both Coloureds, known as
Malays, and Indians. When a further distinction among Coloureds in particular needs to be
‘made, | refer to "Musims’ and ‘(Christin) Coloureds’. During the period under discurtion,
though, the Indian Muslims. who were mainly traders, did not really identity with the
Muslims. While the latter were politically organized through the African
‘Organization (APO), the Indian Muslens founded the Cape Brith Indian Congress in 1919 to
‘oppote the increasing discriminatory measures against Indians,

12 The Consurtutional Ordinance Amendment Act was hurriedly passed through Parliarnent
0 reduce Eflenc's chances. Effends candidature was widely supported Wiroughout the coun-
Ly and signalled the beginning of (Christin) coloured support for Musi political nicatves
(Bicklord-Smith 1989, pp. 22-5)

13, This also partly accounts for the collapse of the first Muslim poliical organization. the
South African Moslem Associaton (established in 1903). Muslims. including Aly, were by then
Active in the Stone meetings. the forerunner of the Alrican People's Organization (APO),
When in 1910 some Muslims again soughr co establish an organuzanon catering excusively for
"Muslim interests, leading clerics attacked the idea on the grounds that the exitence of 3 rep
arate political organization of Malays tended to weaken the political organization of the
‘Coloured peoples on the whole, ie, APO’ (Lewis 1987, p. 85).

114. Dr Abdullah Abdurahman (1872-1940), the grandson of manumited slaves, i one of the
‘most remarkable figures in the history of resistance to oppression in South Africa. From the
time that he first emerged on the public scene as the election agent of his brother-in-law,
‘Adtvnae Efendi, in 1889 une his death in 1940, he was in dhe forefront of what was later
crypucally referred to as ‘the struggle

15. Davids cites oral evidence to the effec that Garnet concluded a secret deal with Hertzog
that the NP would be supported inthe 1924 elections (1981. p. 199), On 17 June 1925 at che
CHA’ fist ever conference. two cabinet minsters made cheir appearance, one of them D, F
Malan, subsequendy prime minister. They heard Gamiet extolling the ‘virtues of the white
rman and how the May people were aspiring to the highest form of cillzation’ (Cape Times,
1B June 1925). ‘Together with the whice man’. said Gamiet. ‘they form the bulwark against
retrogression and the lowering of standards’ (ibid),

16. This radicalization of black politics & also reflected in developments within the ANC,
“which saw a younger and more miftant generation rising to prominence. They were encour-
aged by the wartime idealism, the growing militancy of black trade unions and left-wing
activists in the NEUM to found the ANC Youth League in 1944. fe was in the Youth League
What Nelson Mandela and Olver Tambo first came to rational prominence

17. Despite the discomfort of many Muskms in these organizabens. their campaigns (parccu-
harly the ant-CAD campaign) and, more importandy, the harshness of the Group Areas Act
Promulgated in 1952, enaured that for he majority of Muslims, ideas of collaboration were

The

text

finally abandoned. In 1953 a number of relatively, in some cases completely, unknown Muslim
organizations Issued a statement in support of a key piece of apartheid legislation: the
‘Separate Representation of Voters Act Validation and Amended Bill of 1953. Other than the
(Cape Malay Choir Board, none of chem were of any significance.

18, Some examples of these are the accusation in 1923 that Muslims were adopting white
children in order to ‘ighten’ their race wich the purpose of "taking the country over’, the
banning of the training of Muslim nurses in Sc Monica's Home by Bishop Lavis in 1948 and the
vigorous work of the Anglican Mastion to Muslims during this period. Particularly controver-
sial was the redistribution of a booklet. The Story of Haj Abdulch (1870) in the early 1960s.
This was supposedly the story of a Muslim who was disgruntied with his faith and found
greater spiritual satisfaction in Chistian,

19, The declaration of the Call of Islam, published in Musim News, 31 March 1961, read in
pre ‘For too long a ume now have we been. topether with our fellow-sulerers, subjugated,
suffered humitation of being regarded as inferior beings, deprived of our basic rights to Earn,
to Learn and to Worship. We therefore, call upon our Muslin Brethren and al brothers it
‘our sufferings to unite under the banner of Truth, jusice and Equality to rid our beleved land
‘of the forces of evil and tyranny’ (p. 4),

20, 'The situation of cris’, wrote a prominent black theologian. “has brought black politi
«cians, economists, social scientists, religious leaders and theologians who are in prison as wall
as those who are still outside to a tactical stop. They have had to stop and .. . search for
new and more meaningfl answers to pertinent questions which are posed by it and devise
‘ew strategies of advancing the cause of liberation’ (Mofokeng 1990, p. 37)

21. The expression ‘theology of revolt’ wied here in the sense ofa set of theological ideas which
Informs and imipires Muslims to oppoxe colonialam and political oppression, My reluctance to
describe ths as liberavon theology stems from the fact tut such theology is seldom appled to
theological precepts based on narrow rulng-css oF mule chauvins ideological imcerests.

22. From 1979 onwards. of Qolam. the MYM mouthpiece, consistendy oppoted participation
In apartheid structures. arguing that this ‘would amount to being party to oppression of the
majority of "Blacks™ (February 1984) and that all government invuated reforms were meant
“solely for coumedic purposes’ (March 1985) to effecx potvcal adjustments within the existing
socio-policial framework. The movement itself became more vocal in Its opposition to
apartheid in the early 1980s as i commenced ‘ts courtship with realty’ (Omar 1987, p. 2),
23, The President's Council, a group of people nominated by the state president. proposed a
new constitution whereby two new parliaments, one for Coloureds and the other for
Indians, were to be created in addition to the existing one for Whites. This constitutional
arrangement came to be known at tricameraiim The three chambers governed thew ‘own
affairs and che white chamber had che added responsibility of ‘general aff’ as well as of
‘black affair’, Any confict becween the three chambers was resolved by the President's
Council where the ratio of White, Coloured and tndian was 42:1.

24, This group comprised tree students at the University of Cape Town, ‘Adil Jacobs,
Ebrahim Rasool. and Sharmel Manie and the author. a theologian, Mawlana Farid Esack. The
-group was first named Muslims Against Oppression. Thus rame was hurriedly adopted to
comply with legal requirements for the publishing of pamphlets, and The Caf of tom was the
tile of ts newsletter. Sometime later that year, completely ignorant of the fact that a similar
roup with an identical rae had existed in the Cape a mere twenty years before, the group
began to refer to itsof at the Call of ftam.

25. The Call made much of the front nacure of the UDF to legtimize its participation therein
and argued that every component was able to retain its own ideology (Razool | 98a, p. 109).
Earlier on, Bradlow had cogently argued that. while the UDF had not emerged as 2 single
cohesive political party with a clear ideological platform, ‘the claim that i lacks any ideological
cohesion or force is unfounded, if not ridiculous’ (Bradlow 1984, p. 3). He argued that the
‘national democratic struggle’ which was to culminate in a unitary democratic state, a stated

Qur'an. Liberat

& Ploralism

‘objective of the UDF, was by itself ideological.
26, These were Cassiem Ssloogie, a Musi in the lendership of the Transvaal Indian Congress,
‘Yasmin Sooka, a Hindu barrister. and the Reverend Gerrie Lubbe, 2 Protestant pastor.

27. The MYM's views are reflected in oQakam, a Muslim monthly. The following statements
are taken from its editorials: ‘Ours is 2 heritage of leadership to liberate man from the
bondage of man’ (August 1986); ‘We [Muslims] have the right to lead" (January 1986); ‘the
people of this country will have to be made aware that within Istum lies 2 solution to their
problems and to the problems cf the rest of the world amuary 1980).

2B. Most of those who were identified with Qibla or who belonged to it in che 1980s have
since connected with the PAC or the BC movement. thus giving credence to the allegation
that their oppasition to the Call of Ilam's commvtment t6 interfaith saldarity was never
principled: rather. they rejected the Cais choice of the religious Other. Le. the ANC and
the UDF and their supporters. Ironically, on the day before Qibla's protest inside the
Primroxe Park Mosque againet the Call of llam’s collaboration with the religiour Oxher, a
local daily, The Argus (18 June 1983), carried 2 notice of a joint Qibla-Azapo meeting in Paarl
for the following day (Azapo being a prominent BC grouping).

29, The most publicized of these was the support afforded to Muslims in 1986 when the
Dutch Reformed Church synod adopted a motion denouncing lstim asa “false religion’ and ax
a “dhreat to Christancy in South Africa, Africa and in the world’ (ORC 1986, Pars. 503.24)
‘Muslim Youth Movement 1984, p. 6).

BETWEEN TEXT &
CONTEXT

In SEARCH of MEANING

The religious act ts... always both » fuithfuliness to » tradition, « restatement and a
rupture, a novelty in relation to a personal hustory. The act of believing wa decision,
that find real meaning based on a tradition and » drawing away from at with a view

(Mualum-Chhrstian Research Group 1989, p. 43)

Interpreters are People

lief in the eternal relevance of the Qur'an is not the same as belief

in a text which is timeless and spaceless. In order to relate qur’anic
meaning 10 the South African crucible, the progressive Islamists were
compelled to relate it from some historical moment. The Qur'an, as
Cragg says, ‘could not have been revelatory had it not been also
“eventful”* (1971, p. 17). There is a theological and historical basis for
justifying a contextual approach to the Qur'an itself and the role of peo-
ple in elaborating its meaning. This approach has enabled many a pro-
gressive Islamist in South Africa to engage the apartheid regime meaning-
fully and in solidarity with the religious Other. They have done so despite
the qur'anic warning to those of faith against ‘taking the Christians and
Jews as their atoliya’ (friends/allies/supporters)’ (5:51).

Even the earliest Muslims acknowledged the importance and reality
of people being interpreters of the Qur'an and the inevitable lack of cer-
tainty which accompanies such a task. During the Battle of Siffin (657),’
the supporters of Mu‘awiyah (d. 680) demanded that hostilities cease
and that their dispute with ‘Ali ibn Abi Talib (d. 661) be resolved by

Qur'an. Liberation & Pluralism

resorting to the Qur'an as an arbitrator. ‘Ali’s dilemma reflected that fac-
ing many a Muslim commited to the Qur'an:

When Mu‘awiyah invited me to the Qur'an for a decision, I could
not turn my face away from the Book of Allah. The Mighty and
Glorious Allah declared that ‘if you dispute about anything, refer it
to Allah and His Apostle’. (However,] this is the Qur'an, written in
straight lines, between two boards [of its binding]; it does not speak
with a tongue; it needs interpreters and interpreters are people,
(Cited in al-Razi 1979, p. 248.)

‘Interpreters are people” who carry the inescapable baggage and convivi-
ality of the human condition. Indeed, each and every generation of
‘Muslims since the time of Muhammad, carrying its peculiar synthesis of
the human condition, has produced its own commentaries on the Qur’an
(and various kinds of interpretations with every generation). The present
generation of Muslims, like the many preceding ones, faces the option of
reproducing meaning intended for earlier generations or of critically and
selectively appropriating traditional understandings to reinterpret the
Qur'an as a part of the task of reconstructing society.

More than fourteen centuries after the revelation of the Qur'an, in a
far southern comer of Africa, believers in the Qur’an have opened their
lives and struggles to the meaning of its message. They have asked the
text to enter their contest of oppression and struggle for freedom. The
hermeneutical issues arising from this encounter between text and con-
text, their implications for the emergence of qur'anic hermeneutics as a
contemporary discipline and their relation to (or rupture with) tradition
are the subject of this chapter.

What is Hermeneutics?

‘The distinction between interpreting something on the one hand, and the
rules and problems of interpretation on the other, is something which has
been known from the earliest days of both biblical and qur'anic studies.
‘Thus, ‘while the term “hermeneutics” itself dates back only to the seven-
teenth century, the operations of textual exegesis and theories of interpre-
tation — religious, literary and legal - date back to antiquity’ (Palmer
1969, p. 35). According to Palmer, (ibid., pp. 44ff.) two broad streams
may be discerned in the search for a definition of hermeneutics. The first
stream regards hermeneutics as a general body of methodological princi~
ples which underlie interpretation, while the second stream views it as the

Between Text & Context

philosophical exploration of the character and necessary conditions for all
understanding. Carl Braaten covers both approaches when he defines
hermeneutics as ‘the science of reflecting on how a word or an event in @
ast time and culture may be understood and become existentially mean-
ingful in our present situation’ (Braaten 1966, p. 131). ‘It involves’, he
says, ‘both the methodological rules to be applied in exegesis as well as
the epistemological assumptions of understanding’ (ibid.). Since Rudolf
Bultnann, though, the term hermeneutics is ‘generally used to describe
the attempt to span the gap between past and present’ (Ferguson 1986,
p. 5). How do people make sense of a text? And different people different
sense of the same text? And the same people under a different set of cir-
cumstances? What is a text? These are some of the questions which
hermeneutics addresses.

Hermeneutics assumes that every person comes to a text carrying his
or her own questions and expectations and that it would be ‘absurd to
demand from any interpreter the setting aside of hivher subjectivity and
interpret a text without preunderstanding and the questions initiated by it
{because without these} the text is mute’ (Bultmann 1955, p. 251). In the
singular form, ‘hermeneutic’, the conscious acknowledgement of these
assumptions is brought to the fore. ‘A given hermeneutic is essentially a
self-consciously chosen starting point containing ideological, attitudinal
and methodological components designed to aid the work of interpreta-
tion and facilitate maximum understanding’ (Robinson 1964, p. 5.) As I
shall indicate later in this chapter, questions of meaning and authority of
the text are irrevocably linked to questions regarding the nature of the
text. Within conflicting rationalities and conceptions of justice, South
‘African Muslims, however, have not experienced the historical tale of
the Qur'an primarily a5 a set of arguments about the text. The South
African experience is about the Qur’an’s diverse uses and receptions in
particular socio-political circumstances. In other words, Muslims did
not argue about the nature of the Qur’sn; instead they differed on its
role and ways of understanding it. This bring us to a specific discipline
within hermeneutics,

Reception Hermeneutics

Reception hermeneutics is usually discussed as one of the categories of
functionalism in textual studies (Buckley 1990, p. 330), As with much
else in the social sciences, one finds various typologies rather inadequate
when attempting to relate them to Islamic traditional scholarship.
Functionalism, normally contrasted with revelationism, focuses on the

Que

tien & Pluralism

use of a text and claims that certain texts are scripture only in so far as
they pass ‘certain pragmatic and functional tests’ (ibid.). While Muslim
scholars and organizations involved in the search for a contextual appre-
ciation of the Qur’an do see its essential value in terms of its function
today, none would see themselves in opposition to ‘revelationists’. Such a
category, arguably, does not exist among Muslims. This is not to deny
that there are clear differences in focus. Indeed, with some shift in mean-
ing, one can actually speak of “functionalism’ in the Islamic tradition.

Reception hermeneutics focuses on the process of interpretation and
how different individuals or groups have appropriated it, According to
Francis Schussler-Fiorenza, such interpretation ‘needs to take into
account, not only the text or its original audience, but also the transfor-
mation between past and present horizons’ (1990, p, 23), Reception
hermeneutics would thus change the analysis of the different ways in
which a text was or is received ‘into a task of the study of the meaning of
that text’ (ibid.). In contrast to historical positivism, which would incline
towards a fixed meaning, reception hermeneutics asks that diverse recep-
tions of the texts, ‘including present popular understanding of the text
as concretization of its meaning, be included in the problem of the
interpretation of the text’ (ibid.). In so doing, Schussler-Fiorenza says,
reception hermeneutics ‘would include within the task of interpretation
the problem of the shift in horizons of diverse audiences and the trans-
formation between past and present horizons of expectations toward the
text’ (Ibi

‘The significance of reception hermeneutics and its potential for
incorporation into Muslim approaches to the text becomes evident when
one understands how the Qur'an is viewed by Muslims,

What is the Qur'an?

‘The Qur'an as scripture had been dealt with very extensively in Mustim
and Other scholarship, both critical and confessional.” Here I shall con-
fine myself to a brief explanation of what the term gur’an means to
Muslims. The majority of Arabic scholars hold the view that the word
qur’an is a past participle derived’ from the Arabic root gara’a, which
means ‘he read’, or an adjective from garana, ‘he gathered or collected’
(Lane 1980, 7, p. 2504). In the Qur'an itself, gur’an is employed in the
sense of ‘reading’ (17:93), ‘recital’ (75:18) and ‘a collection’ (75:17),
Literally ‘al-qur'an’ thus means ‘the reading’, ‘the recitation’ or ‘the col-
lection’, From the literal meaning, especially the idea of a ‘collection’, it

Between Teat & ©

is evident that gur’an is not always employed by the Quran in the con-
crete sense of a particular scripture as it is commonly understood. The
Qur'an more regularly refers to itself as a revealed discourse unfolding in
response to the requirements of society over a period of twenty-three
years (17:82; 17:106).

For Muslims the Qur'an as the compilation of the “Speech of God’
does not refer to a book inspired or influenced by Him or written under
the guidance of His spirit. Rather, it is viewed as His direct speech. Ibn
Manzur (d, 1312), the author of Lisan al-‘Arab, reflects the view of the
overwhelming majority of Muslim scholars when he defines the Qur’an as
‘the inimitable revelation, the Speech of God revealed to the Prophet
‘Muhammad through the Angel Gabriel (existing today] literally and oral-
ly in the exact wording of the purest Arabic’ (n.d., 5, p. 3563).

No Text is an Island unto Itself

‘The socio-historical and linguistic milieu of the qur'anic revelation
reflected in the contents, style, objectives and language of the Qur'an,
‘This contextuality-is also evident from the distinction made between the
Meccan and Medinan verses’ and from the way its supposedly miraculous
nature is located in the ‘purity of its Arabic’, its ‘eloquence’ and its
‘unique rhetorical style’. In the relationship between the revelatory
process, language and contents, on the one hand, and the community
which received it, on the other, the Qur'an is not unique; revelation is
always a commentary on a particular society. Muslims, like others, believe
that a reality which transcends history has communicated with them. This
communication, supposed or real, took place within history and was con-
ditioned by it. Even a casual perusal of the Qur'an will indicate that,
notwithstanding its claim to be ‘a guide for humankind’ (2:175) revealed
by ‘the sustainer of the universe’ (1:1), it is generally addressed to the
people of the Hijaz who lived during the period of its revelation.

‘Muslim scholarship generally has been reluctant to explore this rela-
tionship and its implications for the genesis of the Qur'an as well as for its
interpretation. The reluctance to pursue the question of temporal causali-
ty that might be present in the background is a direct consequence of the
passionate commitment to the preservation of the Otherness of the
Qur’an as God’s speech. The reasoning seems to be that if this-worldly
events ‘caused’ revelation then somehow revelation is not entirely ‘other-
worldly’. Instead, ‘they {the traditional scholars of the Qur'an] have set
arbitrary limits to investigations of the myriad historical strands that, from
4 naturalistic perspective, coalesced in the prophetic-revelatory event that

Que

tien & Pluralism

‘The significance of reception hermeneutics and its potential for
incorporation into Muslim approaches to the text becomes evident when
one understands how the Qur'an is viewed by Muslims,

What is the Qur'an?

Between Teat & ©

No Text is an Island unto Itself

Qur'an, Liberation & Pluralism

brought forth Islamic tradition and faith’ (Graham 1980b, p. 21).

Despite this unwillingness to examine the implications of the situa-
tional character of the Qur'an, the principle of contextuality itself is gen-
erally accepted by all traditional scholars of the Qur'an, including those
of fundamentalist persuasion. ‘Although the Qur'an addresses itself to all
of humankind’, acknowledges Abul- A'la Mawdudi (d. 1979), ‘its con-
tents are, on the whole, vitally related to the taste and temperament, the
environment and history and customs and usages of Arabia’ (1988, pp.
26-7), Mawdudi goes further to suggest that without such particularity
doctrine would consist of ‘mere abstractions’ whose impact would be
destined to ‘remain confined to the scraps of paper on which it was writ-
ten’ (ibid.), Along similar lines, although more restrained, is Sayyid
Qurb's (d. 1966) emphasis on the Qur'an's dynamism in the Arabian
context. ‘We see’, he says, how the Qur'an took it [society] by the hand
step by step, as it stumbled and got up again, strayed and was righted,
faltered and resisted, suffered and endured’ (1954, p. 91).

These attempts to remove the Qur'an from its historical and linguis-
tic place of birth both reflected and contributed to a greater rigidity than
had been common among the earliest interpreters of the Qur'an. It was,
however, rooted in the Muslim's own commitment to the Qur'an and ‘a
legitimate religious anxiety in its abiding relevance’ (Cragg 1971, p. 17)
T agree with Cragg that this anxiety was ‘groundless’ and that the ‘signifi-
cance of the Qur'an is sure enough and abides beyond such nervous and
mistaken defence’ (ibid.)

Progressive Revelation

‘The picture which the Que’an portrays of the Transcendent is one of
God actively engaged in the affairs of this world and of humankind. One
of the ways in which this constant concem for all of creation is shown is
in the sending of prophets as instruments of His progressive revelation,
‘Translating this divine concem and intervention into concrete moral and
legal guidelines requires understanding the contexts of these interven-
tions. The principle of zadrij, whereby injunctions are understood to have
been revealed gradually, best reflects the creative interaction between the
will of God, realities on the ground and needs of the community being
spoken to. The Qur'an, despite its inner coherence, was never formulated
as a connected whole, but was revealed in response to the demands of
concrete situations. The Qur'an itself is explicit about the reasons for the
progressive nature of its revelation. Firstly, the fact thar it came as day-to-
day guidance necessitated this manner of revelation, It is ‘a Qur'an which

eal)

Between Text & Context

‘We only gradually unfolded so that you may recite it to the people step-
by-step and (therefore) We have revealed it only in pieces’. (17:106)
Secondly, Islam unfolded in the midst of a struggle and Muhammad
needed the ongoing support and solace from his encounters with revela-
tion. In response to the question from his detractors as to ‘why it was not
revealed to him all at once” (25:32), the Qur'an says, “Thus that we may
strengthen your heart thereby. We have arranged it well’ (ibid.)

‘The most cogent traditional scholar of the progressive model of reve-
lation is undoubtedly Shah Wali Allah Dehlawi (d. 1762) who developed
aan elaborate theory of the relationship between revelation and its context.
Following on his notion of Unity of Being, where everything is closely
integrated, he emphasises the interrelation of the cosmic, divine, terrestri-
al and human powers and effects in the universe, God would thus not
speak into a vacuum nor would He convey a message formed in a vacu-
um, According to Dehlawi the ideal form of din, which he interprets to
‘mean primordial ideal religion, corresponds to the ideal form of nature.
‘Actualized manifestations of the ideal form descend in successive revela-
tions depending on the particular material and historical circumstances’
‘of the recipient community (Hermansen 1985, p. 147). Every succeeding
revelation reshapes the elements ‘previously found into a new gestalt
which embodies din, in an altered form suitable to the recipient commu-
nity’ (ibid.). It thus follows that, according to Dehlawi, with every suc-
ceeding context, din has adapted ‘its form, beliefs, spiritual practices to
the customs, previous faiths and temperaments of the nations to which it
has been revealed” (Dehlawi 1952, 1, p. 187). In this schema of revela-
tion, God’s way of dealing with humankind is compared to a physician
who prescribes different medication to his or her patients in the various
stages of their illness; to hold on to a pre-Mubammadan community
would, in Dehlawi’s view, be tantamount to an adult using medicine pre-
scribed for a child or using yesterday's medicine for today’s ailment.

‘The ‘arbitrary limits’ set by traditional scholars of the Qur'an in
investigating the historical strands in revelation, referred to by Graham
(1980b, p. 21), did not exclude the principle of progressive revelation,
This principle, which characterized the entire revelatory process, is best
manifested in the disciplines of asbab al-nuzul (events occasioning revela-
tion, sing. sabab al-nucul) and that of naskh (abrogation). In the case of
events oceasioning revelation, however, traditional qur’anic studies
reduced the ‘event-ness" of the text to story telling while in the case of
abrogation, its significance was confined to the legal sphere.

Qur'an. Liberation & Pluralism

Events Occasioning Revelation (Asbab al-Nuzul)

At a first glance, a bit of a clumsy translation; one rather walks a
tightrope here, Asbab al-nuzul ‘deals with the transmission of the sabab of
the revelation of a chapter or verse and the time, place and circumstances
of its revelation. It is verified by the well-known principles of transmis-
sion from the pious predecessors’ (Khalifah 1835, p. 269). To render
sabab as ‘cause” would suggest that the event created the text and I am
not sure whether I want to fly into the face of orthodoxy as directly as
this; ‘events occasioning revelation’ is simultaneously a clear and ambigu-
ous rendition.

Andrew Rippin’s survey of classical works on asbab al-nucul (1988a)
shows that, unlike most of the works on the subject of abrogation which
contain a detailed exposition and defence of the discipline, as well as list-
ing its supposed occurrence in the Qur'an, the works dealing with asbab
al-nuzul essentially confine themselves to its occurrence. This lack of dis
cussion of asbab as a discipline shows the relative absence of any serious
consideration in traditional qur'anic scholarship of the question of the
historicity and contextuality of the text.

Aubab al-nuzut have been transmitted by Muhammad's Companions
and scrutinized for reliabitity in the same way as the general hadith litera-
ture (Azami 1978, pp. 189-99). It is thus not uncommon to find some
reports regarded as ‘unsound’ or differing reports from Muhammad's
Companions relating to a single revelation, In such cases, the more ‘reli-
able’ account is preferred or attempts are made to synchronize the appar-
ent contradiction in different accounts. In traditional Islamic studies,
asbab al-nucul forms an important element in the studies dealing with the
campaigns and the biography of Muhammad, interpretation and with
legal matters. Despite the neglect that it has suffered as a discipline, its
significance is evident from the ‘frequency of the claim thar no assistance
is greater in understanding the Qur'an than a knowledge of when and in
what circumstances its verses were revealed’ (Burton 1977, p. 16),
Describing the function of asdub in exegesis, Rippin says that ‘its function
is to provide a narrative account in which basic exegesis of the verse
may be embodied. ‘The standard interpretational techniques of incorpo-
rating glosses, masoretic clarification (¢.g., with variants), narrative
expansion and, most importantly, contextual definition predominate
within the structure of the sabab* (1988b, pp. 2-3). Rippin concludes
that on many occasions it seems that asbab reports are cited by com-
mentators for no apparent purpose of interpretation: “They are cited

Between Text & Contest
and then ignored’ (ibid.). From the context of these citations, though, he
opines that ‘they are adduced out of a general desire to historicize the
text of the Qur’an in order to be able to prove constantly that God really
did reveal His book to humanity on earth; the material thereby acts as a
witness to God’s concem for His creation’ (1988b, p. 2).

Given the general impression in the Qur'an of a God who is con-
stantly involved in the affairs of humankind, this is certainly a credible
reason for the adduction of a sabab. Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti (4. 1505), in
fact, says that the constant reminder of the presence of God in the uni-
verse is one the functions of the sabab (al-Suyuti 1987, 1, p. 29). "The
sabab’ as Rippin says, ‘is a constant reminder of God and is the rope, that
being one of the meanings of sabab in the Qur'an, by which human con-
templation ascends to the highest levels even while dealing with the mun-
dane aspects of the text’ (19886, p. 1)

‘The regular reference to the occasion of revelation in the interpreta-
tion of the Qur'an, the dates and the circumstances of the individual rev-
lations and its significance for the question of abrogation or naskh are all
indications that there is more to the Qur’an than a text. In fact, because
every chapter ‘is so vitally linked with its situational background . . .
knowledge of the occasions of revelation is of extreme importance and
numerous verses will remain incomprehensible without it’ (Mawdudi
1988, p. 3). The significance of this becomes apparent when we read texts
which at superficial reading convey an idea of a tribal God bent on holding
together a small community at the expense of a broader humanity, In later
chapters, I shall show how an appreciation of the occasions of revelation of
these texts actually opens them to a pluralist and liberatory reading.

Naskh (Abrogation, Clarification or Particularization?)

Literally naskh means ‘the removal of something by something else [and]
annulment’ (Ibn Manzur n.d., 6, p. 4407). In traditional qur'anic studies
and Islamic jurisprudence, however, it means the verification and elabo-
ration of different modes of abrogation. The proof text for the notion of
naskh is Qur'an 2:106: “Any message (ayat) we abrogate or consign to
oblivion We replace with a better for a similar one. Do you not know that
God has the power to will anything? The modes of naskh may be classi-
fied as follows: 1) the qur’anic abrogation of divine scriptures that pre~
ceded it; 2) the repeal of some qur'anic texts that are said to have been
blotted out of existence; 3) the abrogation of some earlier commandment
of the Qur'an by the later revelations, while the text containing those
commandments remained in the Qur'an; 4) the abrogation of a prophetic

~ Liberation & Plu

practice by a qur’anic injunction and 5) the abrogation of a qur’anic
injunction by the prophetic practice.

‘The significance attached to naskh may be gauged from the fact that
a large number of independent works were produced on the subject,
Besides the literature on the theory of naskh, one finds a number of
reports attributed to the Companions of Muhammad emphasizing the
need to acquire knowledge of the abrogating and abrogated verses of the
Qur'an,” Despite this emphasis, there is probably no other discipline in
traditional qur’anic studies to rival it in confusion regarding its validity,
meaning and applicability. This confusion accounts for the fact that
many have doubted its validity beyond the first of the modes listed, ive.,
that of the Qur’an abrogating previous divine scriptures (Al-Razi 1990, 3,
pp. 245-52),

A number of latter-day reformists such as Sir Sayed Ahmad Khan
(d. 1898) and contemporary scholars such as Isma'il al-Faruqi (d. 1986)
rejected naskh. They argued that the revelations that came earlier in cer~
tain circumstances and which were modified or improved later, were not
actually abrogated. Instead of viewing previous rulings as abrogated by
subsequent ones, it was more appropriate to continue regarding them as
valid to be implemented in conditions similar to those in which they were
revealed, Much of the concer of these scholars centred around the
question of the authority of the text. When almost every passage or
practice which is held as abrogated by one scholar is questioned by
another, then there is little doubt that the question of scriptural
authority itself is involved.

‘The various transformations in the meaning of the term naskh are
responsible for much of this confusion, as Dehlawi has pointed out
(1966, p. 40). Some Companions, as Tbn Qayyim al-Jawaiyyah (4, 1350)
illustrates, used the word in the sense of ‘either’, ‘exception’, particulariz~
ing the meaning or clarification of a previous verse (1895, 1, p. 12). Its
early usage thus did not necessarily include ‘abrogation’, with which it
subsequently came to be synonymous. These different meanings of the
word were later confused and little or no distinction was drawn between
them. According to Dehlawi, the Companions and Followers (ive., the
generation of those early Muslims who did not meet Muhammad but
knew one or more of the Companions) took maski in the literal sense of
‘removal’ and not in the more technical sense used by the scholars of the
theoretical bases of Islamic law (Deblawi 1966, p. 40). The use of the
term naskh in its general sense thus enhanced the number of abrogated
verses which, according to Dehlawi, had reached five hundred (ibid.).

Between Text & Context

It has been the trend among scholars of the Qur’an to reduce the
number of abrogated verses (al-Farugi 1962, pp. 40ff.; Hassan 1965, p.
187). The repeal of the individual verses in the Qur'an was not generally
favoured and various ways were used to either reduce their number or to
deny their actual occurrence while accepting such a possibility.’ Abu
‘Muslim al-Isfahani (d. 1527), for example, denied the theory of naskh
entirely. Muhammad ibn Idris al-Shafi'i (d. 820) and Fakhr al-Din al-
Razi (d. 1209) argued that the possibility of abrogation does not actually
mean that it occurred (Al-Shafi'i 1973, 2, p. 285; al-Razi 1990, 3, p.
246). Al-Suyuti reduced the number of repealed verses to twenty-one
while Dehlawi, arguing that most of them could be reconciled, reduced
them to five (1966, pp. 41-6).

Whatever the various opinions surrounding naskh, there is unanimity
about what Fazlur Rabman describes as “the situational character of the
Qur'an’ (1966, p. 10). Both the entire revelation as well as specific verses
were generally revealed within the context of particular social conditions.
‘As Muslim society was taking shape, the qur’anic revelation kept up with
the changing conditions and environment.

‘The principle of progressive revelation is best illustrated in the issue
of the prohibition on the consumption of alcohol. In the Meccan period
the Qur'an mentions alcohol among the blessings of God, along with
milk and honey (16:66-9). In Medina a number of Mustims desired an
expressed prohibition of alcohol. In response to this, we have a verse
where the Qur'an says: “They ask you about alcohol and games of
chance; tell them that there is a great deal of harm in them but there are
also certain benefits for people in them; but their harm is greater than
their benefits’ (2:219). After a party at the home of one of the Medinan
host community a number of people actually became drunk and when
one of them led the evening prayers he mispronounced certain words
from the Qur'an. When this was reported to Muhammad, the following
verse was revealed: ‘Do not approach prayers when you are under the
influence of alcohol so that you should know what you are saying’ (4:43),
Much later, according to another report, there was another party where
drunkenness led to a brawl when some people quoted pre-Islamic poetry
against rival tribes. In response to this incident the following text of the
Qur'an was revealed: “Alcohol, games of chance, divining by arrows and
idol-altars are an abomination and work of the devil. The devil wants to
sow discord and rancour among you and that you should become oblivi-
ous of your duty of praying to God. Therefore desist from alcohol. Are
you then going to desist?" (5: 90-1).”

Qur Liberation & Plura!

Progressive Revelation as a Tool for Progressive Islam

The principle of progressive revelation, as is evident from the disciplines
of asbab al-nuzul and naskh, reflects the notion of the presence of a
Divine Entity who manifests His will in terms of the circumstances of His
people, who speaks to them in terms of their reality and whose word is
shaped by those realities. For Muslims committed to discovering the will
of God for society today, the message of the Qur'an, as Rahman says,
‘despite it being clothed in the flesh and blood of a particular situation,
‘outflows through and beyond that given context of history’ (Rahman
1966, p. 11). This word of God thus remains alive because its universali-
ty is recognized in the middle of an ongoing struggle to rediscover mean-
ing in it. The challenge for every generation of believers is to discover
their own moment of revelation, their own intermission in revelation,
their own frustrations with God, joy with His consoling grace, and their
‘own guidance by the principle of progressive revelation. For the numer-
‘ous Muslims who experience existence as marginalized and oppressed
communities or individuals, this discovery clearly has to take place
amidst their own Meccan crucibles of the engagement between oppressor
and oppressed, the Abyssinian sojourn amidst the gracious and warm
hospitality of ‘the Other’ and the liberating praxis in Medina,

The disciplines of naskh and asbab al-nuzul have both come to form
significant elements in contemporary attempts to contextualize the mes-
sage of the Qur'an, to recapture territory from the ever-expanding
unthinkable in Islamic thought. They are being embraced as key ele~
ments in a broader tapestry of historical relevance, contextuality and
social justice.’ Reformist scholars all agree that the task of interpretation
today must consider the time, location and an understanding of how
tenets and directives respond to the contemporary context. They also
share a commitment to the inner unity of the Qur'an and a rejection of
random and selective citation (Rahman 1982a, pp. 3, 20; Asad 1980, p,
7; Ansari 1977, 1, p. 161). The objective is not to search for accounts of
isolated historical incidents} which occurred in the prophetic era and
then attempt to construct a ‘politically correct’ view on the basis of these,
‘The Qur'an is, after all, not merely a collection of individual and dis-
jointed injunctions. It is also an integrated whole with a definite ethos;
‘an exposition of an ethical doctrine where every verse and sentence has
an intimate bearing on other verses and sentences, all of them clarifying
and amplifying one another’ (Asad 1980, p.vii), An understanding of
that interaction and context is a condition for reapplying it. To

Between Text & Contest

understand the Qur'an in its historical context is not to confine its message
to that context; rather, it is to understand its revealed meaning in a specific
past context and then to be able to contextualize it in terms of contempo-
rary reality.

Traditional Qur’anic Scholarship and
Hermeneutics

‘Two terms are usually employed in qur’anic studies to refer to interpreta
tive activity: zafsir and ra'wil, From the root ‘fassara’ (literally, ‘to explain’
or ‘elucidate’) or asfara (literally, ‘to break’), the verbal noun tafsir,
although only occurring once in the Qur'an, in 25:33 (‘Abd al-Bagi
1945, p. 519), came to be used technically for exegesis around the fifth
century Ab/eleventh century CE.” The other term frequently employed in
regard to exegesis is ta'wil. Some scholars use both words in the sense of
‘elaboration’, while others make a distinction between them using tafsir to
denote external philological exegesis, the exoteric/external, or a reference
to both secular and divine books. Ta'wil, from ‘ww-, (literally, ‘to inter-
pret’ or ‘to elaborate’) is then taken to refer to the exposition of the sub-
ject matter, the esoteric/ inner or exegesis dealing purely with a divine
scripture, Later, ta wil became a technical term to denote the rejection of
the obvious meaning of a verse and adoption of an inner interpretation
(Ahmad (Jullands}) 1968, p. 73).

‘The term ‘hermeneutics’ is rather new in Muslim discourse on the
Qur'an and is not used at all in traditional or confessional scholarship,
‘The absence of a definitive term for hermeneutics in the classical Islamic
disciplines, and its non-employment on a significant scale in contempo-
rary qur‘anic literature, however, does not mean that definite hermeneu-
tical notions or operations in traditional qur’anic studies or the other
classic disciplines are absent. Firstly, the hermeneutical problem was
always experienced and actively pursued, rather than thematically posed.
‘This is evident from early discussions on asbab al-nuzul and naskh.
Secondly, as I indicated earlier, the distinction between actual commen-
tary and the rules, methods or theory of interpretation governing it, dates
from the earliest exegetical literature. This was systematized in the disci-
pline of principles of ra/sir. Thirdly, traditional rafsir has always been cat-
egorized, These categories, ‘Shi'ite’, ‘Mu'tazilite’, ‘Ash‘arite’, ‘juristic’,
etc. are acknowledged to say something about the affiliations, ideology,
period and social horizons of the exegete, To date though, little has been
written by Muslims in a historico-critical manner about the relationship

Qur'an, Liberation G& Pluralism

between the social horizons of the exegete and his or her exegesis or
about the explicit o implicit socio-political or philosophical assumptions
underlying their theological predilections, all of which are key concerns of
contemporary hermeneutics.

‘The meaning assigned to a text by any exegete cannot exist indepen-
dently of his or her personality and environment. There is therefore no
plausible reason why any particular generation should be the intellectual
hostages of another, for even the classical exegetes did not consider
themselves irrevocably tied to the work of the previous generation. The
emergence of tafsir as a science in Islam is itself proof of the creativity of
exegetes who still continue to be inspired by, assimilate, elaborate upon
and even reject the work of their predecessors.” Qur'anic scholarship
today does not require appeals to the intellectual genius or the spiritual
heights of pious predecessors. What is required of the interpreter today is
‘a clear understanding of where he or she comes from, a statement of his
or her baggage as the word of God is being approached.

‘The question of the relationship of the birth of the text to its authori-
ty and meaning is one left largely unexplored. Unlike early biblical schol-
arship, which generally agreed that the Bible was a ‘production’, of God
or men, in Islam the traditionalist perspective goes beyond this: the
Qur'an as ‘production’ is itself disputed, as was the question of its (his-
torical) ‘event-ness’. Anything seen as remotely conceding any aspect of
qur'anic revelation is summarily dismissed as making ‘conceptual room
for posing a potentially dangerous question about the authority of scrip-
ture’ (Akhtar 1991, p, 102), For Muslims, God is the author of the
Qur'an. From this perspective one cannot even begin to consider the
Prospect of an ‘objective’ attempt to get into the mind of the author in
order to understand what is intended by the text.

As the progressive South African Islamists discovered in the 1980s,
the task of relating the text to the present context in a concrete manner
invariably brings one face to face with all the contemporary ideas of
hermeneutics and plurality of meanings. While this is a challenge which
was, and is being, confronted, there are no illusions that, for the believer,
the engagement with hermencutics is painless, While hermeneutics may
deal essentially with the problem of the recovery of meaning, it goes
beyond the search for the ultimate in interpretative methodology.
Hermeneutics therefore poses three considerable difficulties for confessional
Islamic scholarship. Firstly, the insistence of hermeneutics on contexts
and human contingency in the recovery of meaning implies that the
Qur'an does not ‘mean* something outside socio-historical contexts but

Between Text & Coa

‘is always possessed of Deutungsbedurftigheit .. . a text in need of interpre
tation’ (Martin 1982, p. 367). In other words, without a context a text is
worthless. While this may conveniently bypass the question of the
Qur’an’s existence outside history, it does not adequately address the ta-
ditional idea thar the true meaning of the Que’an is what God means by
it. Secondly, the stress on human agency in producing meaning is really
opposed to the idea that God can supply people with watertight ‘correct’
understandings, what Arkoun describes as ‘essentialist and unchangeable
concepts of rationality which divine intellect protects and guarantees’
(Arkoun 1987, p. 3). The idea that human constructions and contexts
make God’s presence in the world ‘possible’ is no less profound for tradi-
tionalism than a direct challenge to notions of revelation, infallibility and
authenticity. As Aitken has argued, ‘to write large the significance of
human agency is to see that meaning is itself a contest within power rela-
tions; divinity lies within the working of that contest and cannot be predi-
cated transcendentally outside the contest as the guarantor of a finally
achievable meaning” (1991, p. 4).

‘Thirdly, traditional Islamic scholarship has made a neat and seem-
ingly unbridgeable distinction between the production of scripture, on
the one hand, and its interpretation and reception, on the other. This dis-
tinction is the crucial factor in the shaping of qur’anic hermeneutics, for
it implies that the only hermeneutics Islam can presently cope with is that
pertaining to interpretation and reception.

In contrast to the impersonalism of the modem scientistic worldview
that considers language as autonomous, reception hermeneutics argues
that the locus of meaning for people is persons, Reception hermeneutics
does not try to recover an author's elusive intention, Instead, it studies
the contributions to the ongoing and ever-changing understandings of a
text, Basing itself on exegetical literature in the widest sense, which may
include a radical Islamist’s pamphlet or a traditional cleric's sermon,
reception hermeneutics would examine the many different ways a cext
was received, made concrete and interpreted.

Two Contemporary Approaches

Fazlur Rahman (d. 1988) is arguably the foremost reformist scholar in
contemporary Islam who remains rooted in notions of an essentialist
faith, while Mohammed Arkoun represents a radical break with traditional
epistemology. Along with Nasr Hamid Abu Zaid, the exiled Egyptian schol-
ar, Arkoun is an example of Muslim scholarship embracing contemporary
hermeneutical insights and literary criticism. His thinking is arguably the

Qur'an, Liberation & Pluralism

most radical in contemporary Islam and, along with Abu Zaid, he dis-
plays a deep insight into the contemporary discourses on language, semi-
otics and hermeneutics. Both Rahman and Arkoun have made an
enormous contribution to the methodology of interpretation and to qur’an-
ic hermeneutics respectively, despite the lack of depth in Rahman's work in
this field and the repetitive nature of Arkoun’s over the last few years.

Fazlur Rahman: A Modernist Rooted in God-Consciousness

My interest in Fazlur Rahman, a Pakistani scholar and graduate from the
universities of Oxford and the Punjsb was first awakened while at the
madrassah in Karachi, Our rector, the late Mawlana Yusuf Binnuri,
extolling the achievements of our institute, mentioned the important con-
tribution which it had played in forcing Rahman into exile, Rahman had
taught in the United Kingdom and Canada before working as the
Director of the Institute of Islamic Research in Pakistan. While he was in
this post, he was forced into exile for his views on the nature of the
Qur'an. He passed away in 1988 in the United States, where he was a
professor in Istamic Studies at the University of Chicago.

‘Among contemporary Muslim scholars the concem for the contextu-
ality and programmatic nature of the Qur'an is best represented by
Rahman, His views on the Qur'an and revelation are covered in a chapter
in his books Prophecy in Islam: Philosophy and Orthodoxy (1958) and Islam
(1966) while his ideas on hermeneutics and interpretation are dealt with
extensively in slam and Modernity: Transformation of an Intellectual
‘Tradition (1982a) and in an article, “Interpreting the Qur'an’ (1986b).

Rahman, a passionate believer, regards the Qur'an as ‘a unique
repository of true answers to virtually all situations’ (1982a, p. 5), and
believes that, in returning to it, ‘modern man [will] be saved through reli-
gion’ (ibid. p. 40). He insists that revelation intends obedience rather
than information and believes that ‘the Qur'an is the divine response,
through the Prophet's mind to the moral and social situation of the
Prophet's Arabia, particularly the problems of the commercial Meccan
society of his day’ (ibid, p. 5). He believes that the Qur'an really originat-
ed outside this world. This ontological othemess of the Qur'an is seen in
the fact that it was ‘verbally revealed (italics in original] and not merely in
its meaning and ideas’ (1966, pp. 30-1). According to him, this ‘divine
message broke through the consciousness of the Prophet from an agency
whose source was God’ (1988, p. 24), In this sense it also became a part
of Muhammad’s speech, It is this area of overlap that earned Rahman the
wrath of traditional Muslim scholars.

Between Texr & C

ext

but orthodoxy lacked the necessary intellectual tools to combine, in
its formulation of the dogma, the otherness and verbal character of
the revelation, on the one hand, and its intimate connection with the
work and religious personality of the Prophet, on the other; i.e., it
lacked the intellectual capacity to say both that the Qur'an is entirely
the Word of God and, in an ordinary sense, also entirely the word of
Muhammad. (1966, p. 31)

Rahman here refers to the events prior and subsequent to the mihnah, a
Muslim version of the Inquisition” which resulted in traditionalists
emphasizing the externality of the Qur'an (1966, p. 31). He insists that
while the Qur'an ‘itself certainly maintained its otherness . . . objectivity
and the verbal character of the revelation, {it had] equally certainly reject-
ed its externality vis-a-vis the Prophet’ (ibid.). Rahman is arguably the
first modern reformist Muslim scholar to link the question of the origin of
the Qur'an to both its context and interpretation, It is also a connection
with which contemporary hermeneutics is also concerned and which is
crucial for the question of meaning. Rahman's writings, however, display
little insight into hermeneutics as a contemporary discipline. Beyond
what has been said, he regrettably leaves unexplored the crucial question
of the relationship between the origin of the text and its interpretation,
By contemporary Mustim standards his views are fairly radical, but he
concentrated on methods of interpretation, rather than on the implica~
tions of his views on the nature of revelation for interpretation and
meaning.

‘There are two key concepts in Rahman's approach to qur'anic inter-
pretation: understanding the Qur'an within ‘its proper context which is
the struggle of the Prophet and the background of that struggle’ (1986b,
p. 46); and ensuring that the underlying unity of the Qur'an flows
through all interpretation (ibid., p. 45). Rahman Jaments the “general
failure to understand the underlying unity of the Qur'an’ (1982a, p. 2)
which has led to a ‘piecemeal, ad hoc and extrinsic treatment of it’ (ibid,
p. 4). His criticism of the ‘extrinsic treatment’ of the Qur'an reveals the
inadequacy of his hermeneutical methodology and his insistence on an
‘objective’ appreciation of the Qur'an’s meaning. His criticism of the two
groups of Muslims, the philosophers and Sufis, who, he believes, often
understood the underlying unity of the Qur'an, is a case in point (ibid., p,
3). Rahman argues that this unity was imposed from without rather than
derived from ‘a study of the Qur'an itself” (ibid.). While their ideas were
‘adapted somewhat to the Islamic milicu and expressed in Islamic termi-
nology’, ‘this thin veneer could not hide the fact that their basic structure

Qur'an, Liberstion & Pluralism

of ideas was not drawn from within the Qur'an itself’ (ibid). He there-
fore concludes that their intellectual constructs had an ‘artificial Islamic
character’ (ibid.).

Rahman argues strongly that there are intellectual constructs which
can be ‘objectively’ arrived at and ‘objectively’ defined as ‘Islamic’
(1982a, pp. 8-11). Arguing that a subject-interpreter can break free from
the shackles of his or her ‘effective history’ (Gadamer’s term; Gadamer
1992, p. 267), Rahman believes that it is possible to go beyond one's self
and to arrive at absolute/objective meaning (Rahman 1982a, pp. 8-11),

In Islam and Modernity, Rahman argues the case for an ‘adequate
hermeneutical method’ ‘exclusively concerned with the cognitive aspects
of revelation’ (1982a, p. 4). The a priori hermeneutical keys for the ‘pure-
ly cognitive effort’ (ibid.) are faith and the willingness to be guided.
“While faith may be born from this effort’, he says, ‘more patently, faith
may and ought to lead to such cognitive effort’ (ibid.). Rahman argues
that the process of drawing meaning or, more appropriately, guidance,
from the Qur'an, can be compared to the process of dynamic revelation,
Contemporary exegesis must, therefore, focus on the historical circum-
stances of revelation as the most valuable means of understanding (ibid.,
pp. 1-11). He proposes a process of interpretation involving a double
movement: from the present to the qur'anic period and then back to the
present (ibid., p, 20). His methodology is diagrammatically illustrated

below:
Historical Situation ee = ‘Quranic Response

Generalizing Specific Answers

Determining Moral-Social Objectives of the Qur'an

Between Teat & Conrext

‘The first movement consists of understanding the Qur'an as a whole
and in terms of specific injunctions revealed in responses to specific sirua-
tions. This proceeds in two steps. The first step, studying the historical
situation and its ethico-moral requirements, precedes the study of the
qur'anic texts in the light of specific situations (Rahman 1982a, p. 6).
‘The second step is to generalize those specific answers and frame them as
statements of general moral-social objectives that can be drawn from the
specific texts in the light of their socio-historical background and the
often stated rationale behind the law (ibid.).

The second movement involves applying the general objectives
achieved under the first in the present concrete socio-historical context.
‘This application requires a study of the present situation in order to
change it and to determine priorities to implement quranic values afresh.

Rahman; A Critique

In much of his approach, Rahman shows a lack of appreciation for the
complexity of the hermeneutical task and the intellectual pluralism intrin-
sic to it, This absence of grey areas is the most serious inadequacy in his
approach. Faith leads to understanding, he insists, without secing that
these can be intrinsically linked to each other. Similarly, he deplores what
he calls “Islam's pitiable subjugation of religion to politics . . . rather than
genuine Islamic values controlling politics’ (1982a, pp. 139-40) without
acknowledging the dialectical relationship between the two. His criteria
of knowledge are based on the primacy of cognition and he ignores the
relationship between cognition and praxis. Lastly, as Moosa points out,
‘he does not attempt to capture the aesthetic whole, but is pre-eminently
preoccupied with the historical cognition which would focus on moral
values.” (Moosa 19876, p. 19)

Rahman's work displays an overriding concern for the “basic moral
lan’ (1966, p. 32) of the Qur'an. The twin pillars of this morality, he
tirelessly proclaims, are God-consciousness and social justice (1982a, p.
155). While he insists that his commitment to these is derived from the
Qur'an and not read into it, they do effectively become significant
hermeneutical keys in his methodology. He thus reads into the Qur'an
whatever conforms to the requirements of God-consciousness and social
justice and, invoking ijtihad (scholarly creative endeavour), applies the
principle of progressive revelation to conform with it.

Rahman, however, displays a regrettable ignorance of the structural
causes of injustice and refers to the need for social justice in somewhat
condescending terms. Those who are engaged in political struggles

Qur'an, Liberation & Pluralism

‘employing an Islamic perspective are dismissed as ‘using Islam’ (1982a,
pp. 139-40). By so doing, he ignores the fact that the study or articula-
tion of the Qur'an within a particular socio-political framework is not
confined to those intent on challenging an unjust status quo.

The idea that those committed to the removal of injustice are ‘politi-
cal’ or ‘ideological’ beings and those committed to its preservation are

apolitical’ or ‘spiritual’ is long since discredited, The South African
engagement with the Qur’an and the visible manner in which religion
itself became contested territory testify to the fact that apparently apoliti-
cal readings of the Qur’an were as much influenced by the power
arrangements as any decidedly ethico-political reading. As Tracy says,
“There is no historyless, discourseless human being’ (1987, p. 107).

‘The objectivist approach and belief in gaining access to ‘the real
truth’, as I have shown, flow through Rahman's work. Yet his own ideas
are not entirely free from ambiguity. On at least one occasion he affirms
‘tentativeness’ as a value intrinsic to modem thought. Addressing the task
before the Muslim intellectual, he says that ‘modern thinking, on princi-
ple, must reject authoritarianism of all kinds . . . Openness to correction
and, in this sense, a certain amount of doubt, or rather tentativeness lie in
the very nature of modern thought which is an ever-unfolding process
and always experimental (1970, p. 651). Elsewhere he has acknowledged
that although ‘the meaning of a proposition may be universally true; this
does not imply that understanding of that meaning is also universal’
(1982b, p. 191). He has regrettably not interwoven this “tentativeness’,
which may accommodate pluralism, into his overall methodological
approach. He has also not seen how the objectivism that underpins his
entire approach to the Qur'an must effectively work against any ideas of
heurism and pluralism. Rahman's approach to the Qur'an from the per-
spective of its all-pervading insistence on ragwa and commitment to social
justice is, nonetheless, a welcome departure from Arkoun’s idea that the
ideal search for knowledge is motivated by seemingly neutral reason,

Mohammed Arkoun: Deconstructing Revelation

‘This Algerian Muslim scholar has written a number of books on Arab and
Islamic thought. He received his Ph.D. from the Sorbonne, where he cur-
rently teaches the history of Islamic thought. Arkoun’s writings show con-
siderable affinity with recent trends in French academic thought, especial-
ly structural linguistics, the post-structuralist writings of Paul Ricocur and
Michel Foucault and the deconstructionism of Jacques Derrida.

‘The discourse on revelation and historicity led by Arkoun is decidedly

Between Text & Con

more radical and critical than that of any other contemporary Muslim
scholar. A critic of orthodoxy, he rejects any links between his ‘modem
perspective of radical thought applied to any subject . . . and islahi
(reformist) thinking’ (1987b, p. 2). Arkoun argues that the present crisis
of legitimacy for religion compels scholars to ‘only speak of heuristic ways
of thinking’ (ibid., p. 10). While he insists on a historical-sociological-
anthropological approach, he does not deny the importance of the theo-
logical and the philosophical. Instead, he says that he wishes ‘to enrich
them by the inclusion of the concrete historical and social conditions in
Which Islam always has been practised’ (ibid., p. 3). Arkoun presents a
number of ‘fundamental heuristic lines of thinking . . . to recapitulate
Islamic knowledge and to confront it with contemporary knowledge in
the process of elaboration’ (ibid.).

1, Human beings emerge in societies through various changing ‘uses’
(activity, experience, sensation, observation etc.). Each use in society,
he says, ‘is converted into a sign of this use [and] realities are
expressed through languages as systems of signs’ (1987b, p. 8). This
development occurs prior to any interpretation of revelation.
Furthermore, scripture, ‘is itself communicated through natural lan-
‘guages [which are] used as systems of signs’ (ibid, p. 9) and each sign
is ‘a locus of convergent operations [i.e., perception, expression,
interpretation, translation, communication) which engages all of the
relations between language and thought’ (ibid.). ‘Two serious conse~
quences for traditional thinking on revelation and language follow:
the notion of the sacredness of Arabic is no longer tenable and, more
significantly, ‘the core of Islamic thought is represented as a linguis-
tic and semantic issue’ (ibid.),

2. All the signs and symbols produced by a human being (i.¢., semiotic
productions) in the process of his or her social and cultural emergence
are inextricably bound to historicity. As a semiotic articulation of mean-
ing for social and cultura uses [emphasis mine], the Qur'an is subject to
historicity.” Arkoun raises the fundamental hermencutical question
thus: "How can we deal with the sacred, the spiritual, the transcen-
dent, the ontology, when we are obliged to recognize that all this
vocabulary which is supposed to refer to stable, immaterial values, is,
submitted to the impact of history?’ (1988, p. 70).

3. Faith does not exist on its own independent of human beings, nor
does it come from a divine will or grace; rather it is “shaped, expressed
and actualized in and through discourse’ (19876, p. 10)

Qur’

4. The traditional system of legitimization represented by classical
Islamic theology and Islamic jurisprudence and their vocabulary does
not have any epistemological relevance. In other words, they are use-
less for the elaboration of knowledge today. These disciplines and
their vocabulary, he argues, are too compromised by the ideological
biases imposed on them by ‘the ruling class and its intellectual ser-
vants . . . [and] are authoritative only because they refuse to be
engaged by the changing scientific environment’ (1988, pp. 64-5),

‘The application of Arkoun’s ideas is best understood in the way he analyses
the processes of revelation and the way the written text became a canon, i.
sacred and authoritative. Following Ricoeur (1981a, p. 15; 1981b, pp. 15-16),
Arkoun distinguishes between three levels of the word of God.

‘The first is the word of God as transcendent, infinite and unknown
to humankind as a whole with only fragments of it having been revealed
through the prophets.” Second are the historical manifestations of the
word of God through the Israelite prophets (in Hebrew), Jesus of
Nazareth (in Aramaic) and Muhammad (in Arabic). (It was memorized
and transmitted orally during a long period before it was written down
(19876, p. 16))." Third, textual objectification of the word of God takes
place (the Qur’an becomes a mushaf, i.e., written text) and the scripture
is available to the believers only through the written version of the book
preserved in the officially closed canons.” Arkoun’s analysis of revelation,
its objectification and interpretation as well as the believers’ interaction
with these on the one hand, and its relationship to the history of salvation
‘on the other, is diagrammatically illustrated on the following page.”

Here we see what Arkoun describes as the descending movement of
the word of God and the ascending movement of the interpreting commu-
nity towards salvation according to the vertical perspective on all creation
as it is imposed by the qur’anic discourse. “The interpreting community is
the subject-actant of the whole terrestrial history represented, interpreted
and used as a precarious stage to prepare the salvation according to the
History of Salvation narrated by God as an educative part of revelation’
(Arkoun 1987a, p. 16). Arkoun argues that the individual relationship to
the book as the word of God is equally a socio-political relation to the
community: ‘The psychological function of the revelation as a message to
the heart is inseparable from its social efficacy to transcend divisions and
competitions, its legitimizing value for the political order’ (ibid., p, 17).

Arkoun’s historico-anthropological perspective on the phenomenon
of revelation in history and the relationship of the believing community to

“my

Between Text & C

Word of God > a

—
aa
f Clesed Corpus
a
at memorization,
election, elimination, crystallizapon,
a ool
=
=e
Emergence of Crivcal
Rationality.

it can casily be interpreted as a scientific reduction of something
essentially transcendental, He denies this on two grounds. First, his per-
spective, he argues, includes the transcendental and does not put it
beyond the parameters of ‘the true rationality” (ibid., p. 27). Second, the
rationality used at the theological stage of reason, Arkoun says, is more
‘related to the collective imaginaire than to the critical reason’ (ibid., p.
28). Since theological reason is ‘unable to recognize that it produces
imaginaire rather than rationality’ (ibid., p. 27), this task belongs to those
who operate beyond the confines of theological reason but, who nonethe-
Jess, embrace it.”

Arkoun: A Critique

My critique of Arkoun’s ideas must be viewed in the light of the
inescapable links that exist between the formulation of ideas and our
histories, a notion seemingly endorsed by Arkoun, as well as my own
objective of locating the hermeneutical task within a specific context of a
struggle for justice,

Qur* Liberation & Pluralism

Scholars, their critiques of the theories of knowledge and the way it is
produced, as well as the intellectualist solutions which they offer, also
‘operate within history. One cannot view revelation and tradition histori-
cally and ideologically and then take an ahistorical or ideology-free view
of oneself and of one’s own critique. For the contemporary scholar,
Arkoun argues that ‘the problem of authority does not today depend on
any religious or secular institutions, in so far as reason has established its
authority vis-d-vis outside authorities (revelation, church, shar‘ah, state,)?
(1988, p, 68). Writing in another context, but with relevance to our
subject here, Gutierrez describes this appeal to ideological neutrality in
the following terms:

‘The last systematic obstacle for any theology committed to
human liberation is a certain type of academicism which posits
ideological neutrality as the ultimate criterion; which levels down,
and relativizes all claims to absoluteness and all evaluations of
some ideas over others. This is the theological equivalent of
another great ideological adversary of liberation: the so-called
quest for the death of ideologies or their suicide at the altars of
scientific and scholarly impartiality. (1973, p. 25)

‘What Arkoun’s critique of the authority structures fails to recognize, is
that authority does not only derive from formal institutions, but also from
other systems of meaning such as academicism. Furthermore, modernity
itself functions as an appendage to liberal ideology, which is not without
its hegemonic interests. Leonard Binder has raised the pertinent question
of whether the critique of Muslim liberals has not been a ‘form of false
consciousness, an abject submission to the hegemonic discourse of the
dominant secular Western capitalist and imperialist societies, an oriental
orientalis, or whether it was and is practical, rational and emancipatory’
(1988, p, 5).

‘The call for ‘knowledge as a sphere of authority to be accepted and
respected unanimously, a knowledge independent of ideologies, able to
explain their formation and master their impact’ (Arkoun 1988, p. 69),
does little other than further the ideological interest within which such
knowledge is located and formulated. Knowledge, like any other social
twol, while it can be critical, is never neutral. Ax Segundo has argued,
‘every hermeneutic entails conscious or unconscious partisanship. It is
partisan in its viewpoint even when it believes itself to be neutral and tries
to act that way’ (1991, p. 25),

‘The notion of any sphere of authority being ‘respected unanimously”,

Between Text & Contest

as advocated by Arkoun is surprising coming from a scholar whose ideas
are able to find an audience precisely because of the absence of unanimi-
ty, Any form of unanimity, including intellectual unanimity, inevitably
implies the formation of another orthodoxy with its implicit denial of the
validity of dissent.

Arkoun’s ideas imply that there can be a class of ‘super readers’,
‘expert historians or linguists who will be able to access the true meaning
of a text, Schussler-Fiorenza has outlined how such an approach ‘falsely
Presupposes that the later horizon [of the reader] exists within the earlier
horizon [of the author]’ (1990, p. 23). Besides underplaying the temporal
distance between text and interpreter, it also ‘minimizes the fact that no
‘text has been written so that philologists could read and interpret it philo-
logically or so that historians may read it historically’ (ibid.).

When one pursues ‘independent knowledge’ with ‘exact methods’
and ignores the meaning of the text for the contemporary situation and
for people of faith, then one effectively places oneself and a small group
of other ‘objective’ intellectuals outside and above the vast majority of
believers for whom the text is a living document. This may be the choice
which a scholar living in Antarctica can make, For those living in South
Africa during the apartheid years one could not do so and retain one’s
integrity as a human being.

For me, a fundamental question remains: for whom and in whose
interests does one pursue the hermeneutical task? That this is a political
question is beyond doubt and may suggest a desire to use the text as "pre~
text’. Arkoun has cogently argued that the history of qur’anic interpreta-
tive activity is precisely this. I am unconvinced that it can be otherwise or
that this is intrinsically objectionable.

Understanding a Text

By way of drawing this chapter to a close and laying the basis for the next
one, I want to look at the three elements intrinsic to any process of
understanding a text: the text itself and the author, the interpreter and
the act of interpretation

Getting into the Mind of the Author

‘As I mentioned earlier, in the case of the Qur'an where God is regarded
as the ‘author’, the question of identifying with the author in order to get
to the real meaning behind the text is problematic. While it is inconceiv-
able that Muslims would claim to get into the mind of God, it is not so

Qur'an, Liberation & Pluralism

far-fetched for some to claim that God has taken control of their minds.
‘This alternative path to understanding through inspiration-intuition is
not without precedent in Muslim approaches to the scripture and it
enjoys considerable popularity in traditional and mystical Islamic schol-
arship. In this methodology piety is combined with scholarship to pro-
duce meaning. Piety is also supposed to serve as a barrier between per-
sonal opinions and the truth, Muhyi al-Din ibn ‘Arabi (d. 1240), for
example, suggests that God played a direct role in his understanding of
the text (n.d., 1, pp. 3-4).

For others, Muhammad becomes the key agent present in producing
meaning. Muhammad, it is claimed, appears to the interpreter in a
vision, to clarify a difficult point or to indicate the correct interpretation.
In effect, the notions of God or Muhammad getting into the mind of the
interpreter or vice versa are really the same, To get to the ‘true meaning’
of the text, as intended by God, many Muslims would, in effect, ask:
“What did Muhammad understand by this text?" Traditional exegetical
scholarship, while rejecting any ideas that an interpreter can get into the
‘mind” of God, nevertheless, implicitly bases many of its arguments on
the assumption that its interpretation is the meaning intended by God,
(The dutiful proclamation of ‘God knows better’ at the conclusion of
most of such works, notwithstanding.) Traditional Islamic scholarship, in
dealing with qur’anic texts, effectively works along the lines of a pious
form of historical positivism. Meaning, for Rahman and the traditionalist,
is located within the text and can be retrieved by ‘pure minds’,

‘We have no right to exclude the possibility of the personal usefulness
of this approach, nor can one ignore the fact that mystical movements of
interpretation had as much impact on popular Islamic practices in certain
contexts as the shari‘ah ~ if not more. However, the problems involved in
consciously applying this approach to the socio-political arena or the
domain of public morality in a definitive manner are far too serious for
aany significant consideration here. Firstly, identification with the author,
the first recipient of the text or the primary audience, in whatever form
(cognitive, spiritual, psychological, etc.), does not take into account the
differences in the historical situations of the recipient of the text and the
interpreter. The relatively common experiences of people may minimize
their divergent outlooks in different historical periods, but do not in any
way negate them. Secondly, the essentialist and absolutist religio-political
claims — ‘God has inspired me or us with the correct interpretation’ —
which must follow any understanding so acquired are not consistent with
the quest for pluralism. ‘The problem of conflicting claims of ‘purified

Between Text & Contest

minds’ — one person’s saint is invariably another’s charlatan — and conse-
quently conflicting monopolies over absolute truths, is a serious one with
little or no space in any discourse on pluralism. These problems are, of
course, not peculiar to the intuition-scholarship approach. Here I only
wish to underline some of the problems with any approach which cannot
be subjected to rational, ethical and sociological scrutiny.

The Interpreter: A Beast of Many Burdens

T have argued that the inevitable active participation of the interpreter in
producing meaning actually implies that receiving a text and extracting
meaning from it do not exist on their own. Reception and interpretation,
and therefore meaning, are thus always partial. Every interpreter enters
the process of interpretation with some preunderstanding of the ques-
tions addressed by the text ~ even of its silences ~ and brings with him or
her certain conceptions as presuppositions of his or her exege
‘Meaning, wherever else it may be located, is also in the remarkable struc-
ture of understanding itself, ‘There is no innocent interpretation, no
innocent interpreter, no innocent text’ (Tracy 1987, p. 79).

‘The urgent need of contemporary qur’anic scholarship is to remove
preunderstanding from the much-maligned tafsir bi'-ra'y (interpretation
based on considered reasoning) which, in conservative discourse, has
come to mean baseless and devious theological or political concoctions
superimposed on the Qur'an (Shafiq 1984, pp. 22-3). Once this task is
accomplished, one can proceed to examine and discuss the legitimacy,
usefulness and justice of particular preunderstandings above or in con-
trast to others. Preunderstanding is a condition of living in history. By
itself, preunderstanding has no ethical value; the ethics or absence of
them, are located in an acknowledgement or denial of its presence.

‘The absolute and undisputed reference point for Muslims is the
Qur'an and, for Sunni Mustims, the Prophet's conduct, and these remain
the criteria to determine normative Islam. The unavoidable point of depar-
ture for approaching these criteria, however, is one’s self and the conditions
wherein that self is located. In ignoring the ambiguities of language and his-
tory and their impact on interpretation, there is no effective distinction
between normative Islam and what the believer ‘thinks’ it to be. Both tradi-
tionalism and fundamentalism deny any personal or historical frame of
reference in the first instance. While they will insist that normative Islam
is ‘to be judged solely by the Qur’an and the prophetic practice’, they will
throughout their discourse simultaneously imply ‘and we have correctly
understood these".

Qu Liberation & Pluralism
Interpretation: No Escape from Language,
History and Tradition

‘The past is not past, it is present. Any person who uses a language ‘bears
the preunderstandings, partly conscious, more often preconscious, of the
history and traditions of that language’ (Tracy 1987, p. 16). There is no
escape from this, The meaning of words is always in process, I remem-
ber my mother telling about a friend, who in her teens, offered to take
her to the cinema in his kar, which is old Afrikaans for both ‘car’ and
‘cart’. With much anticipation she awaited a drive in a car and was
brought back to earth by the clatter of the hooves belonging to a pair of
horses. Today Aar only means ‘car’. To use any word, as Cantwell-
‘Smith has illustrated, ‘is to participate at a given point - or more strictly,
at least two points ~ in the ongoing historical process of its meaning’
(1980, p. 501). The literal meaning of any form of speech is problematic and
never value free. This is especially the case with symbolic and sacred speech.
CCantwell-Smith has illustrated how the “magnificent’ and always ‘impressive
device of language’ is inescapably imprisoned within imperfection.

What is communicated to the hearer or reader is sufficiently close to
what is intended by the speaker or writer, that we do well to be awed
fand grateful; and yet it is in principle never exactly the same ~ and
especially not in important or subtle or deep matters. Since the mean-
ing for any person of any term or concept, let alone of any phrase or
sentence is integrated into that person's experience and worldview, is
oor becomes a part of it... . Therefore, meaning can never be exactly
the same for any two persons . , . nor for any two centuries . . . nor
for any two regions. (Cantwell-Smith 1980, p. 502)

“The radical plurality of our differential languages and the ambiguity of all
our histories’ (Tracy 1987, p. 82) are unavoidables in any attempt at
understanding. The problem of language is thus not confined to the inter-
preter but also extends to the tradition or text being interpreted. Any act of
interpretation is a participation in the linguistic-historical process, the
shaping of tradition and this participation occurs within a particular time
and place. Our engagement with the Qur'an also takes place within the
confines of this prison; we cannot extricate ourselves from and place our~
selves above language, culture and tradition, I agree with Tracy that ‘every
interpreter comes to the text bearing those complex histories of effects we
call tradition. There is no more a possibility of escape from tradition than
there is the possibility of an escape from history or language. (1987, p. 16).

Between Text & Contest

Reformist thinking argues that the crisis in the world of Islam and the
inability of Mustims to make a meaningful contribution to contemporary
issues is due to tradition. The answer for many of these Muslim reformist
‘scholars is to bypass tradition and ‘to go back to the Qur'an’. This argu-
ment does not take into the account the fact that exegesis is not entirely
independent from the text but actually belongs to its historical productiv-
ity. Exegesis is not just an interpretation but ‘rather an extension of the
symbol and must itself be interpreted’ (Martin 1982, p. 369). How is it
possible to bypass tradition and argue that historical interpretations, an
intrinsic part of tradition, must be judged by the understanding gained
from the Qur'an itself? Can one emerge at the one end of a vacuum with-
‘out ever having entered it, with the Qur'an as a disembodied soul floating
at the other end? No scripture, least of all a text simultaneously abound-
ing with symbolism and an all-pervasive contextuality as the Qur'an evi-
dently is, emerges from a vacuum and comes to us unencumbered by ‘the
plural and ambiguous history of the effects of its own production and all
its former receptions’ (Tracy 1987, p. 69),

Conclusion: Whose Morality? Which Justice?

In chapter 1 I detailed the unfolding of the hermeneutical crisis in South
Africa. 1 also explained how the experience of studying the historical situ-
ation and its ethico-moral requirements occurred under specific socio-
political conditions, Such study has impacted upon the way progressive
Islamists in South Africa understood the ethico-moral requirements of
Meccan-Medinan society and of the Qur’an’s response to it.

By whose standards would ‘the moral-social objectives’ of the Que’an
and ‘moral-social requirements of society’ (Rahman's terms) be defined?
‘The South African experience and, more specifically, the struggle, con-
fronted many a progressive Islamist with the problem of religious plural-
ism and how God might address Himself to South Africa's people. I
showed that the conservative pro-apartheid cleric in South Africa saw a
rather different moral-social objective in the qur’anic message than the
anti-apartheid Islamist; the eighteenth-century Muslim in the Cape saw a
different moral-social objective in the Qur'an than that seen by the twentieth
century Muslim. The struggle for justice in South Africa that resulted in this
hermeneutical crisis came about because its people were suffering under
rulers with absolutist claims to “know”. The oppression of the people of
South Africa was based on this ‘knowing’, It is thus not surprising that
the hermeneutical responses to that situation of oppression-liberation
should also involve the quest for pluralism.

Qur'an. Liberation & Pluralism

‘How does a theology of pluralism that emerges from a liberation
struggle view the traditionalist notions of absolute or universal meaning
and the historical positivist’s belief that access to “true meaning’ is possi-
ble? How does a hermeneutic of liberation respond to the argument that
it is possible to ascertain the meaning intended by the author of a text? 1
have already indicated how a denial of the link between preunderstanding
and interpretation is to reject the other’s interpretation as eisegetical
flights of imagination and accept one’s own as the “uncovering of truth’.
‘This attitude, I have said, invariably leads to the fundamentalist assump-
tion that there is not only a singular truth, but also a singular understand-
ing of it, inevitably that of the speaker or writer.

Arkoun’s heuristic methodology, in contrast to that of Rahman, is
rooted in pluralism, He argues with impressive effect that the remarkable
similarities in the theological and intellectual developments among the
Abrahamic religions should be the new basis of dialogue (19874).
However, in the search for meaning, the hermeneutical quest, when we
do not address the question ‘For whom and in whose interest’, then plu-
ralism simply becomes ‘a passive response to more and more possibilities,
none of which shall ever be practised’ (Tracy 1987, p. 90). “This is the
perfect ideology for the modern bourgeois mind. Such a pluralism makes
genial confusion in which one tries to enjoy the pleasures of difference
without ever committing oneself to any particular vision of resistance, lib-
eration and hope’ (ibid.)

For those who eke out an existence on the margins of society, living
under the yoke of oppression and struggling with the equally oppressed
Other in the hope of liberation, a pluralism of splendid and joyous intel-
Jectual neutrality is not an option. On this basis, I argue for the freedom
to rethink the meanings and use of scripture in a racially divided, eco-
nomically exploitative and patriarchal society and to forge hermeneutical
keys that will enable us to read the text in such a way as to advance the
liberation of all people

Notes

|. Upon the assassination of (Udiwran in 656, ‘Al became the Caliph. His accession 0 the
‘caliphate, though, was opposed by a number of Companions who insinuated that he was a
party to Ws predecessor's assassination or that he was unwilling to pursue the assassins. Soon
ater becoming the Caliph, he marched against those who refsied to pledge allegiance to him,
During this expedicion ‘Alt moved to the plains of Sifin where ‘Udhman's nephew. Mu‘awiyah,
had camped, Intermittent barties and skirmishes raged until June-July 457 whan Mu'awiyah's
forces, with copies of the Qur'an tied to their lances, demanded that the dispute be submie-
‘ted to the Qur'an for arbitration.

Between Text & Context

2. Basic works for the general crcical suudy of the Quran include Noldecke (1909-38), Bel
(1970), Watt (1969), a-Said (1975), Abu Zaid (1993) and Goldziner (1970), Jefreys has done
important work regarding the ute of non-Arabic words in the Que'an (1938) as well 25 the
process of compilation and transcription (1937). Crises! studes on the process of compila-
tion and transcription have also been done by Wansbrough (1977) and Burton (1977).

3. A minority of scholars, prominent among whom is al-Shafi (d. €20). holds that quran is
‘ot derived but is a proper noun "in the same manner of the towrat and the iy (al-Nime
1983, p. 6). This opinion, traced back to "Abd Allah ibn Mas'ud, would read the word as
quran, Le. withoue 2 hemach (on Manzur nd. 5, p. 3563).

4. Islamic scholarship has divides qur‘anc revelacon into two distinct chronological periods:
the Meccan and Medinan. The Meccan texts focus on the three essental elements of Islamic
doctrines: the unqualified and absolute unicity of God. the prophethood of Muhammad and
the final accountability of pecple in the presence of their Sustainer. The Medinan revelations
dea! with yssues of community-building and the resulting problems. Laws regarding socio-
political relations, tased on the ethico-mora! inuncbons revealed in the Meccan phase, were
elaborated. The intellectual and politcal challenges presented by the new neighbours of a
‘governing ktor, the Jove and che Civitan, were deakt with, os were the problems posed by
thowe who feigned allegiance to Islam, the hypocrites.

5. ‘All ibn Abi Talis reported to have seen aman in the mosque of Kula replying to reli
ous questions put (0 him by the people around him. He asked che man whether he could
distinguish between the abrogating verses and the abrogated ones. When he replied in the
negavve, ‘Al accused the man of deceiving himsel as well as others and prohibited him from
speaking in the mosque again (al Suni 1987, 2. pp. 200).

6, The Mu'tazloh justfied the doctrine of the craatedness of the Qur'an on the basis of
‘Qur'an 2:106, They contended that # the Qur'an could be subjected to abrogation then it
could not be eternal. However. a group of them, according to alRazi (1990, 3, p: 248),
denied the theory of nasth

7. Rahman explains the motivation behind this gradual prohibition ax follows: “When the
Prophet was in Mecca, Muslims were a very smal formal community. I was NOt yet 8 0c
‘ty: It appears that most of them did not drink at that ime. Later. when the prominent
‘Meceans converted to lam around the year 614, like Hara, the uncle of the Prophet, and
“Umar thn al Khactab, there were some among them who did drink. But this phenomenon did
‘not Guuse any problems for the Muslims because they were not a society as yet, but only an
informal community. When, however. the Muslans moved to Medina they not only became a
society but a sort of informal state. Drinking at that ome did develop into a problem”
{Rahman 1986b, pp. 47-8)

8, Using noxth 28 the cornerstone of their reformist methodology are Taha Mahmud (d. 1985),
the executed Sudanese scholar, and the Republican Brothers. The deployment of notkh a8 the
most significant element in the methodology of reinterpreting Ilam has been detailed in the
writings of the group's most prominent legal scholar, Abdullhy an-Na‘im, in his work on cl
erties, human rights and international tw (1990),

9. The earliest term employed for works of interpretation seems to have been mo'ani (itera
fy. meanings’) (ER, "wof’) This i sexe significant in ies implicit pluralist assumptions. This
teem, a8 well as tofu, was also applied to Arabic and Greek commentaries on Aristoue, as
well co the explanations of lines in pre-bimic poetry. Golfield has demonstrated how the
basic nomenclature for concepts in interpretation in Islam indicates a much longer familarity
with these terms than the few decades since Muhammad's demise in 632 (1993, p. 15),

10, Early exegetes such as ak Tabari and al-Marurich used the terms interchangeably. a's ev-
den from the titles of their commentaries Jam abBayan on To'wd Ay ol-Quron and Ta'wlt ob
Qur'an, respectively. in later editions, a-Tabar's exegesis subsequently came to be renamed
Jom obBayan fi Tofir a}Qur'an, isl an indication of the pejorstve connotations applied to
the word twa.

Qur'an, Liberation & Plu

ism

1, Specialise exegetes appeared after the development of various Islamic sciences and each
undertook the study of the qur‘anic commentary according to his specalization, Examples of
these are al-Zujaj who did exagess from 3 syreactial perspective al-Wahidi and Abu Hayyan
{rom that of morphology: alZamakhshari from the angle of rhetoric and eloquence: al-Razi
from a theological perspecove. Scholars suchas ibn a-Arabs and Kashshan) based their exegetical
‘works on gnosis while others like Quraubi concenerated on aspects of jurisprudence In addition
to these, 2 number of exegetes adopted interdiscipinary approaches. They include fxma'il alk
Hagqi, Shihab al-Din Mahmud al-Baghdadi and Nizam ab Din a-Nisaburi

12. The controversy on the createdness of the Quran reached feverish heights during the
reign of Abu't‘Abbas al-Mamun (813-833) who instituted the mivnah 2 kind of public inquis-
tion, in 833 (Watt 1950). Most leading officials and other prominent personalities were
forced to publicly profess thar the Qur'an was created and fallure to do so led to persecution
and even to death, With a few exceptions, most theologians submitted publicly. The moxt
Prominent among the exceptions was Ahmad itn Hanbal (4. 855) who was flogged and
imprisoned for hs belies (Patton 1897; Madelung 1985).

13, The implication of this is that "dere is no occess to the absolute (emphasis in original) out-
side the phenomenal world of our historical terrestrial existence’ (Arkoun 1987b, p. 8), He
thus inises on ‘historicity a8 a dimension of the truth’ (ibid. p. 9): truth which is shaped by
“changing tools. concepts, defstoons and postulates’ (ibid). Here he challenges all ‘medieval
thinking based on essences and substances’ (bid), presumably including the notion of a 'sta-
ble scripture’. His emphasis that there is no access to the absolute seemingly, leaves the pos-
silty ofa stable and essen cruth,

14, ‘Discourse as an ideological articulation of reales a5 they are perceived and used by dif:
ferent competing groups’ (Arkoun 1987b, p. 10) he explains, ‘occurs prior to the faith’ (bid),
“Conversely faith, ater it has taken shape and roots through religious political and scientific
discourse, imposes ts own direction and postulates on to subsequent discourses and behav-
tours (bid),

15, This level is expressed in the Qur'an by such expressions as obLowh abMahfue' (the well-
‘preserved tablet) (85°22) or the Umm abtab (archetypal book) (43:4).

16, He emphasizes that defining scriptures ax speech worded by God Himsoif does not
change the linguistic and hestorical fact that the messages of Jesus and Muhammad are trans:
mitted in human language and collected in an orthodox closed corpus in concrete historical
conditions (Arkoun 1987b, p. 16)

17. This textual objectificauon, according to Arkoun, was contingent on many historical facts
depending on social and political agents, not on God Some of the ‘imperfect human proce-
dures’ which determined the shape of the written word to which he refers are ‘oral erans-
mission’, the use of mperfece graphic form ... conflicts between clans and parties... and
‘unreported readings’ (19872. p. 5)

18, Reproduced from Arkoun 19873, p, 28.

19. "The transcendence clawed in the traditional theological interpretation of the Book is the
projection of the religious maginare back to the inaugurating age of revelation. It becomes a
prychologteal, cultural process of tranicendentaliation, mythologization, sacralization and
‘deologization in variour changing condiwone. This procest \s included in the anthropological
problematic’ (Arkoun 1987a. p. 27),

20, Arkoun argues that ‘critical reason engaged in the study of the societies of the Book
Jknows the ditinction between imaginare and rationatiry; it negrates both in the same pro-
ject of incelgibility without reducing one to the other on an itlusionary basis. From this
‘exercise emerges a new rationality which avoids the prejudices of Uie secularized positivists
(oF the polemical model, as well a the so-called spiritual, divine or transcendental model’
(1987, p. 28),

21, Carewell-Smith summarizes this point so eloquently that a lengthy quote bears repradue-
tion here: if you yourself are a Musi wriong 3 commentary; or a Sufi pr instructing your

Between Teat & Context

‘muri [dexciple): or are 2 conscientious jurisconsule deciding 3 tricky point of law: or are a
modern Oxford:educated Muslim reflecting on contemporary lil; or a twelfth-century
Shirazi housewile ... or are a left-wing leader of the slave revolt of the Zanji protesting
against what seem to you the exploitation and hypocrisy of the establishment ~ in all such
‘eases the correct interpretation of a particular Quran verse is the best possible nterpreta-
tion that comes to you or that you can think up’ (1960, p. 492). He goes on to say that he
{does not mean a cunning concoction or that the interpretation i responsibly contrived: on
the contrary, the interpreter is constrained by the very fact of his or her esteeming this as
the word of God, ‘to recognize as the most cogent among all porsible alternatives that incer-
[pretation is in his or her opinion ‘the closest to universal truth and to universal goodness’
“You chaate not what is the best for you'. he 1272 ‘but what in your judgement is the best
absolutely, cosencaly (ibid. p. 492).

HERMENEUTICAL KEYS

The ENGAGED INTERPRETER & the
SEARCH for LIBERATING MEANING

1 am the Prophet of mercy, | am che Prophet of battle,

(Hoadith, ined in Sb Taymniyyob 1924, p. 8)
You cannot separate Muhammad, the prayer leader, from Muhammad, the jihad
leader; the hand that held the miteadk’ also held the word,

{Cal of tala 1985, Unite for Justice, p. 1)

A Hermeneutic of Liberation

Ec the first chapter we saw how qur'anic texts pertaining to justice,
oppression, resistance, the armed struggle and interfaith solidarity
against oppression were frequently invoked by the progressive Islamists
during the uprisings of the early 1980s. Standing within the struggle for
justice was itself a good point from which to get 4 better view of the text,
In other words, the location of the interpreter itself became a consciously
chosen hermeneutical key,

‘The criteria which these engaged interpreters employed in their
approaches to the Qur’an and their choice of one particular meaning over
another were diffused in numerous tracts, discussion-cum-reflection cir-
cles and public speeches. These criteria and the methods used to get to
them, however, were never systematically defined and justified, nor were
they carefully examined in the light of Islamic theology. I now want to
move on to weave the qur’anic rhetoric of liberation used during the
1980s into a more coherent theological theory and hermeneutic of reli-
gious pluralism for liberation. In doing so, I shall be focusing on the the-
ological and political nature and implications of each of the following

Hermen

jeal Keys

hermeneutical keys within the context of a society characterized by injus~
tice, division and exploitation: sagwa (integrity and awareness in relation
to the presence of God); zawhid (divine unity); al-nas (the people); al-
mustad'afun fi'l-ard (the oppressed on the earth); ‘ad and gist (balance
and justice) and jihad (struggle and praxis).

A Qur'anic Theology of Liberation

Speaking about liberation during the apartheid years in South Africa has
made the meaning of liberation obvious enough: liberation from all forms
of racism and economic exploitation. A deeper awareness of the nature of
injustice, the role of socio-political structures and the importance of a
truly participatory process of liberation has led to a clearer definition of a
theology of liberation. A theology of liberation, for me, is one that works
towards freeing religion from social, political and religious structures and
ideas based on uncritical obedience and the freedom of all people from
all forms of injustice and exploitation including those of race, gender,
class and religion, Liberation theology tries to achieve its objectives
through a process that is participatory and liberatory. By this I mean that
it is formulated by, and in solidarity with, those whose socio-political lib-
eration it seeks and whose personal liberation becomes real through their
participation in this process. Furthermore, an Islamic liberation theology
derives its inspiration from the Qur'an and the struggles of all the
prophets. It does so by engaging the Qur'an and the examples of the
prophets in a process of shared and ongoing theological reflection for
ever-increasing liberative praxis.

While the idea of the Qur’an as a revolutionary text was very much in
vogue in Iran as well as among those South African Muslims in sympathy
with that revolution (the MYM, al-Jihad and Qibla) during this period,
there is little to suggest that the specifics of the hermeneutical perspectives
emerging there were studied in any depth in the Cape. Several theological
revolutionary notions, such as the socio-political implications of divine
unity (tawhid) and the option for the oppressed (mustad'afun fi'l-ard)
widely propagated in Iran, particularly by the Mujahidin-I-Khalq, did,
however, find their way into the local Islamic liberation discourse, Here
they were fleshed out and painted in South African colours. The notions
of an Islamic theology of liberation and its hermeneutical keys emerged
from the qur’anic reflections engaged in by Islamists in the many groups
where young Muslims gathered to reflect on the relevance of the Qur'an
and sunnah (practice of the Prophet) to their lives and to the struggle

Qurtan. Liberation & Pluralism

against apartheid. The affinity of these Islamists to Islam was thus
expressed through seeking support from the earliest forms of theological
legitimation, the Qur'an and sunnah, rather than to post-Muhammadan
Jegal or theological tradition. “The Review of Faith’, 2 manual for Call of
Islam activists, states this as follows:

Our reflections must at all times lead to a deepening of our under-
standing of faith, [These reflections] are one dimension of our jour-
neying to Allah. We . . . need to develop the closest possible relation-
ship with His message. He speaks to us through the Qur'an and the
Sunnah of all the Prophets . . . If we are going to test our actions in
the light of the Qur'an and Sunnah, then we must also have the
determination to approach these two sources directly. (Call of Islam
1985, The Review of Faith, p. 53)

One of the consequences of resorting to the text while bypassing the cler~
ics was that most of the qur’anic concepts used during this period were
free from the legal or ‘orthodox’ meanings which tradition had accorded
them. Within the South African context, these concepts were never
‘employed systematically. One needs to consider whether they were prior
itized in any particular order, whether they come from the text or the
context, and how authentic they are as hermeneutical concepts.

Any discussion of the theological and legal validity of these concepts
would have meant taking on the traditional clerics in debates in areas
with which the Islamists were largely unfamiliar. The clerics had, further-
more, generally been on the sidelines during this period. The Islamists
did not perceive any need to resort to traditional theology and it was
widely felt that the categories developed by traditional scholarship, such
as the abode of enmity (dar al-harb), the abode of Islam (dar al-Islam),
etc., were irrelevant to, or insufficiently developed for, the context of
both modernity and liberation. Furthermore, those most active in the
struggle were simply not interested in scholarly analysis of the categories
they invoked. Often this was because of the intensity and immediacy of
the demands of the struggle. A more significant reason, however, was the
notion that praxis was a legitimate basis for theory, Addressing the lead-
ership of the MYM, Mawlana Ebrahim Moosa, their then national direc~
tor, emphasized the relationship between liberating praxis and theory as
follows:

Liberating praxis, a5 opposed to practice, should be our major
watchword, By praxis we mean doing and reflecting. The halagat
should be active circles of knowledge and practice (praxis) which

Hermeneutics! Keys
integrate organic intellectuals (‘alim/ ‘ulama’) with activists
(mujahids) to fulfil the description of the early Muslim community:
Gallant warriors by day and monks by night. (Moosa 19872, p. 4)

‘The question of the order or priorities of these hermeneutical concepts or
keys is a significant one. For the Islamist, while they may be prioritized

ness to prioritize them is based on the idea that the theological cannot be
separated from the ideological, the spiritual from the mundane, nor the

text from its context. The way these keys are intertwined, i.e., their
dialectical nature, is also seen in the question of the origins of these
hermeneutical keys. During the 1980s, they were certainly presented as
coming from the text. Indeed, the Islamists who used liberation rhetoric
from a fundamentalist perspective will probably insist that their theologi-
cal insights have been worked out prior to and outside the historical
process. In fact, they may even deny that they have been ‘worked out’
‘and insist that they are an eternal given for anyone who looks into the
text. The reality, though, is more complex. These keys emerged from an
ongoing engagement between the South African struggle and theological
reflections in which the text undoubtedly played a significant role. It is
more appropriate to say that truths experienced in the struggle were
affirmed and challenged by these theological reflections and the text.

Dogma may precede praxis, but not in the case of a theology that is
committed to liberation. Theology, for the marginalized, is the product of
reflection which follows on praxis for liberation. The qur'anic statement
‘and to those who struggle in Our way, to them We shall show Our ways!
(29:29) affirms this view of ‘doing’ theology. The history of all forms of
theological thought in Islam, as elsewhere, confirms what Friedrich Hegel
(d, 1831) said about philosophy: ‘it rises only at sundown’ (cited in
Gutierrez 1973, p. 11).

How Genuine is this Product?

Questions pertaining to authenticity are probably the most significant
‘ones here. How authentic was this idea of Islam now being advertised on
the market? What is authenticity? Who determines it? What should be
authentic for whom? Alll theological categories, no matter how authentic
an air has been afforded them by the passing of time, are always the
product of ideology, history and seemingly apolitical reflections, Studies
in the emergence and development of supposedly pure theological con-
cepts such as the eternity of the Qur'an, bila kayf, gada and gadr’, all

Liberation & Pluralism

conclusively prove that, while the text was the weapon with which the bat-
tes to affirm or deny them were fought, they were inevitably shaped by
history (Madelung 1985; Watt 1991; Bell 1970). To the extent that histo-
ry is the story of the victors, these concepts are equally those of the victors.
This is not to comment on their correctness or incorrectness. I rather wish
to emphasize that the process that led to the elaboration of doctrines and
that fixed their final starus and form was as human as that which gave rise
to concepts such as the preferential option for the marginalized.

Looking at life from the underside of history, liberation theology is in
‘some ways an attempt to retrieve authenticity from the victors, to free it
from the notion that it is irrevocably tied to the powerful. It also ques-
tions the notion of a final authenticity that can be wrapped up neatly in a
creed, but argues that liberating praxis leads to greater authenticity, To
the marginalized ~ the essential subjects of the kind of theology that
emerged in South Africa during the 1980s ~ the question of authenticity
was never a crisis or even a focal point, Given that the focus of liberation
theology is the ‘non-subjects’ of history, the marginalized, they were the
determiners of authenticity based on their interests,

The Keys to Understanding

In reflecting on the hermeneutical keys that have emerged from the
South African engagement with the struggle for liberation and with the
Qur'an, I shall try to show how a qur’anic hermeneutic of liberation
would work, with its continuous shift between text and context and the
‘ongoing reflections on their implications for each other. I shall also
underline the significance of these keys as indispensable tools for under-
standing the Qur'an in a society characterized by oppression and an
interreligious struggle for justice and freedom.

‘The first two keys, tageu (an awareness of the presence of God) and
tatwhid (the unity of God), are aimed at developing the moral and ‘doctri-
nal’ criteria with which to examine the other keys and the ‘theological
glasses’ with which to read the Qur'an in general and, more specifically,
the texts dealing with the religious Other. Despite the seemingly theologi-
cal nature of these two keys, they, like all theological precepts, are also
formulated and understood within a specific historico-political context,
and are presented as such. The second two keys, al-nas (the people) and
the marginalized (al-mustad'afun fi't-and) define the location of our inter-
pretative activity. While all contexts wherein the interpreter is located
must necessarily bear upon the outcome of her or his interpretation,

Hermencutical Keys

interpreters also have the freedom to position themselves differently in
relation to any situation in order to arrive at a specific kind of interpreta-
tion, The last two, justice (‘ad! and gist) and struggle (jihad), reflect the
method and the ethos that produce and shape a contextual understand-
ing of the word of God in an unjust society.

Taqwa: Protecting the Interpreter from Him or Herself

Taqwa, from the Arabic root 2-¢-y, literally means ‘to ward off, ‘to guard
against’, ‘to heed’ or ‘to preserve’ (Lane 1980, ‘t-g-y’)’ and has been used
in all these senses in the Qur’an (¢.g., 3:25, 120).’ In the qur'anic sense it
may be defined as ‘heeding the voice of one’s conscience in the awareness
that one is accountable to God’. Jafri has shown how, among all the ethi-
cal terms adopted by the Qur'an, ‘the most widely applicable and most
inclusive of all is the term ragwa’ (1980, p. 127). Its comprehensive sense
of embracing both responsibility to Ged and to humankind is evident
from the following texts:

‘Thus as for him {or her] who gives to others and is conscious of God
{itzaga} and believes in the ultimate good, We shall facilitate his [or
her} path towards ease; as for him [or her] who is stingy and thinks
himself (or herself] self-sufficient and calls ultimate good a lie, we
facilitate for him (or her] the way to distress. (Qur'an 92:4-10)

© humankind! We have created you all out of a male and a female,
and have made you into nations and tribes so that you might come
to know one another, Verily the noblest of you in the sight of God is
the one who is most deeply conscious of God [aigakum). (Qur'an
49:13)

The Qur'an links ragwa to belief in God (10:63; 27:53; 41:18) and
regards its attainment as one of the objectives of serving God (2:21),
‘Those who prefer the short-term advantages of this world are often con-
trasted with those who have ragwa (4:77; 6:32; 12:57). What is signifi-
cant, though, is the way the Qur'an links zagwa to social interaction and
concern for others, such as sharing (92:5; 7:152-3), fulfilling covenants
(3:76; 7:52) and, especially, kindness (3:172; 4:126; 5:93; 16:127),

‘The Qur'an emphasizes the need for a community and individuals
deeply imbued with tagma who will carry on the prophets’ task of trans-
formation and liberation (3:102-5, 125; 8:29). According to the Qur'an,
4 commitment to God's people is an inseparable part of a commitment to
God. However, this does not imply that the two dimensions of this com-
mitment are identical; a muslim is, in the first instance, someone who has

Qur'an. Liberation & Pluralism

submitted to God in both a social and personal sense, Tagwa, as the
‘South African Islamists have argued, is the struggle to remain true to this
commitment in all its dimensions.

In a message on the occasion of the Festival of Charity (‘Id al-Fitr) at
the end of Ramadan, the Call said:

Our involvement [in the liberation struggle] after Ramadan will show
Whether we have learnt ragwa, whether we really became aware of
the plight of the oppressed. The hallmark of s Muslim who has truly
fasted is his preparedness to throw in his lot with the rest of the
oppressed in the struggle for the liberation of all the people in this
country. (Call of Islam 1985, Bid Mubarak, p. 1)

‘The progressive Islamists, however, also saw the need to protect them-
selves, to exercise 1agwa, with regard to the many challenges thrown up
by a struggle where the main concerns were often the immediate and the
mundane, How to remain true to one’s self and one's commitment to
God was an ongoing and deep concen. The notion of sagwa, arguably,
represented the most formidable challenge to the progressive Islamist
who sought to actualize his or her Islam in contemporary terms. Several
internal documents of the Call and the MYM testify to the serious grap-
pling with the question of taguu in the midst of a socio-economic struggle
(MYM 1978, 1983; Call of Islam 1987). Tagwa was also seen as the key
to understanding the Qur'an: ‘Tagtea’, said Ebrahim Rasool, then nation-
al secretary of the Call, ‘is the basic pre-requisite for understanding and
reading the Qur’an and is the protective measurement against the use of
the Qur'an and the random appropriation of texts for legitimating ideolo-
Y Which is alien to the Islamic world view’ (Rasool 1987)

In its first self-description, the Qur'an refers to itself as ‘a guidance
for those who are on the path of zagrea’ (2:2), Not only is ragwa presented
here us the first hermeneutical key, but also as a quality towards which
believers have to aspire, outside and beyond the immediate task of inter-
pretation, There is an insistence too on a relationship between discover-
ing truth and living it. The acceptance of ragwa as a hermeneutical key
has significant implications for both the engaged interpreter and the act
of interpretation.

‘The Qur'an often presents conjecture and personal whim as the two
elements which distort its meaning. These are frequently contrasted with
revelation (10:36; 53:3); guidance (2:120; 6:56, 116; 26:50; 50:3);
understanding and knowledge (2:78, 145; 4:157; 45:17, 23, 53:27); and
truth (5:475 10:36), all of which are central elements in the hermeneutical

Hermeneurical Keys

task. (Traditional theology has regularly accused theological or ideologi-
cal adversaries of zann and hawa [baseless speculation and personal
fancy] in order to dismiss their exegetical opinions. These accusations are
invariably arbitrary and usually mask the ideological predilections of tra-
ditional theology.) A qur’anic hermeneutic of liberation, with ragma as a
key, ensures that interpretation remains free from both theological obscu-
rantism and political reaction, as well as from the purely subjective spec-
ulation of individuals, even though they may be from the ranks of the
oppressed and the marginalized.

‘The second significant consequence of :agwa as a hermeneutical key
is that it facilitates an aesthetic and spiritual balance in the life of the
‘engaged interpreter. A hermeneutic of liberation is forged in the midst of
a socio-political struggle, a struggle which often confines its perspective
to the immediate and the politically expedient. Tagtea forces the engaged
interpreter to embark on a process of introspection, a process for which
there is often neither the time nor the inclination. In South Africa, as
elsewhere, activists stumbled from crisis to crisis, and the obvious way of
responding was with the immediate and the concrete in mind. The logi-
cal consequence of this was that immediate political exigencies dominat-
ed qur'anic interpretation entirely and the struggle was deprived of the
more profound and universal sense of history and broader vision that a
comprehensive reading of a scripture such as the Qur'an offers.

A third consequence is that it commits the engaged interpreter to a
dialectical process of personal and socio-political transformation. The
guidance the Qur’an claims to offer is an active guidance to those who
are not mere observers or ‘objective’ students but who have entrusted
themselves to it for such guidance. This ‘engaging the Qur'an’ in the
process of revolutionary struggle also means an engagement of the self
with it. This, in turn, ensures a balance between active participation in
social and self-transformation. ‘Change, according to the Qur'an’, says a
Call document, ‘is a dialectical process of simultaneous conversion of
hearts and {socio-economic} structures’ (Call of Islam 1988, p. 13).

The search for a hermeneutic of liberation assumes that there is a
group of people who are serious about the reconstruction of society
alongside principles of justice, freedom, honesty and integrity. Only those
struggling to concretize these qualities in their own lives during a libera-
tion struggle aimed at constructing a new society, can be entrusted with
the moral and ethical responsibility of managing such a society. In addi-
tion to the significance of saga for the activist as interpreter, sagwa has
implications for him or her as an activist and may prevent the activist

Qur'an, Liberation & Pluralism

from becoming a mirror image of the very tyrant being fought. There is
some truth in the perception of many people that ‘politics is a dirty
game’. Some of the finest individuals participating in the struggle against
apartheid have been motivated by an intense and noble hatred for the
suffering resulting from it. It is, however, not infrequently that one
observes the same individuals being transformed into cold and calculat-
ing Machiavellian political entities who, as a matter of course, violate
democracy and common human decency.

While ragwa is also an essential source of support for the engaged
interpreter struggling to understand the Qur'an, there is still no guarantee
of absolute meaning. However, tagwa ensures that the Muslim walks in
the grace of God, a grace that allows him or her to remain on the path
even while struggling to find it. ‘And whosoever observes tagwa in respect
of God, for him [or her] He will create an opening’ (Qur'an 15:2).
Furthermore, in the face of a discredited and quietist clergy on the one
hand, and a morally bankrupt tyranny on the other, ragwa serves as a
shield against revolutionary deception and activist arrogance. We have
witnessed the way in which revolutionary regimes in Eastern Europe,
China, Zimbabwe, Iran and elsewhere have come to power on the basis
of a commitment to freedom, equality and justice, and how these rights
were subsequently only available to the ruling clique and their support-
ers, Tagwa is the antithesis of the self-deception that leads individuals,
movements and governments to believe that they are still for people when
the reverse has, in fact, become the case, From my reading of the Qur'an,
it would seem as if zagwa, rather than “objective scholarship’, is the most
significant hermeneutical key to minimize the extent to which the text
can be manipulated for narrow personal or ideological advantage.

Tawhid: An Undivided God for an Undivided Humanity

From the root w-fixd, rawhid means ‘to be alone’, ‘one’, “an integrated
tunity’. Although this form of the word does not appear in the Qur'an,
tawhid has come to be synonymous with the unity of God. Belief in
tawhid, ‘faith in God, the Solitary without a parmer, the Embodiment of
Unity, the One whose Unity is unceasing and with whom there is none’
(Ibn Manzur, 6, p. 4761), is the basis of the qur’anic worldview: ‘Say: He
is the One God. God, the Eternal, The Uncaused Cause of all Being. He
Begets not, and neither is He begotten, And there is nothing that could
be compared with Him” (12:14).

‘There are numerous other verses in the Qur'an which directly or
indirectly deal with the unity of God and ramhid has correctly been

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described as ‘the foundation, the centre and the end of the entire
[Islamic] tradition’ (Royster 1987, p. 28). Islam’s comprehensiveness
or holism is rooted in the principle of rawhid. The conviction that
tawhid is at the heart of a comprehensive socio-political worldview,
although not entirely novel, has grown enormously in the last few
decades, particularly in some of the ideological currents in Iran that led
to the 1979 revolution.” Foremost among those who advocated tawhid
as a worldview aimed at realizing the unity of God in human relations
and socio-economic systems was ‘Ali Shari‘ati (1933-77) and the
Mujahidin-I-Khalq of Iran. The following quote from Shari‘ati gives an
idea of the revolutionary appreciation of rawhid:

In our Islam, farohid is a world view, living and meaningful, opposed
to the avaricious tendency for hoarding and aims for eradicating the
disease of money worship. It aims to efface the stigma of exploita-
tion, consumerism, and aristocracy . .. Whenever the spirit of tawhid
revives and its historical role is comprehended by a people, it re-
embarks on its [uncompleted] mission for consciousness, justice,
people's liberation and their development and growth. (Cited in
Irfani 1983, pp, 36-7)

‘The notion of tawhid as a way of looking at life was widely used by the
engaged interpreters in South Africa, both against the traditional separa-
tion between religion and politics and against apartheid as an ideology.
During this period, 1awhid was increasingly viewed as both an ideological
source and a sacred frame of reference. Concepts such a ‘tawhidi society’
and ‘the sociological implications of rawhid’ were often referred to, The
following are a few examples of the way in which the term was used in
South Africa’. A Qibla pamphlet declared the aim of the Islamic move~
ment to be the establishment of a system in South Africa which ‘is com-
patible with the logic of rawhid® (Qibla n.d., Neither Oppressed, Nor
Oppressor Bel, p. 1). ‘Muslims are Muslims’, stated Worldview, the
newsletter of the MSA, ‘because of their belief in the rawhid of God ~ a
tawhid which goes beyond mere verbal acknowledgements and which nec~
essarily demands that Muslims act in the face of injustice . .. This tawhid,
which exhorts us to fight in Allah’s way, must fully consume our con-
sciousness on this road of toil and struggle [for liberation)’, (Worldview
1984, p. 6).

Muhammad Amra, then leader of the MYM, spelt out his under-
standing of the ‘process of zawhid’ in a message on the occasion of the
‘Id al-Fitr celebrations:

Qurvan, Liberation & Pluralism

He [Muhammad] spent 13 years in Makkah teaching . . . ratohid [to]
the early Muslims. He organized individual Muslims into a group
and after the hjrah . . . he organized them into . . . an ummah, He
then extended the tawhid from the individual and the group to the
state. This is the most important mission of our beloved Nabi
Muhammad (SAW); to destroy all false gods, [and] establish «
tathidi society on the earth. (1986, p. 14)

Linking orthodoxy to a peculiarly South African orthopraxis, the Call, in
an appeal to boycott the sanction-busting New Zealand rugby tour in
1988, declared that. *Tawhid implies that . . . he is not a Muslim who
goes to mosque on a Friday and to racial sport’ on a Saturday . . . He is
not a Mustim who buys his plane ticket for Hajj and his season ticket for
racial sport’ (Call of Islam 1985, All Blacks Out!t!, p. 1).

‘There were diverse opinions about the nature and vision of a tawhidi
society and little attempt was made to spell out its detailed implications
for South Africa or how it related to tawhid as belief. What is clear,
though, is that in addition to its affirmation as theological dogma, rawhid
was, and still is, widely seen as having wo specific applications in the
South African context. At an existential level, it means the rejection of
the dualistic conception of human existence whereby a distinction is
made between the secular and the spiritual, the sacred and the profane,
Religion thus becomes a legitimate, even necessary, means with which to
alleviate political injustice. At a socio-political level, rathid is opposed 10
society which sets up race as an alternative object of veneration and
divides people along the lines of ethnicity. Such division is regarded as
tantamount to shirk (associating others with God), the antithesis of rawhid,

Apartheid was denounced as ‘openly reject{ing] the tawhid narure of
mankind as told to us in the Qur'an: “mankind is a single nation” (Call
of Islam 1985, Interfering with the Sanctity of Islam, p. 2). It was viewed as
a form of shirk because, in terms of social outlook and practice, it con
sciously divided people along ethnic lines, thereby denying the unity of
humankind, which is a reflection of razohid. It furthermore set up race as
an alternative to divinity and as a form of shirk; apartheid was described
4 ‘the path of division, the path of shirk’ (Call of Islam 1985, Muslims
Against the Emergency; p. 1).

In contrast to the divisive nature and heronvolkism of apartheid,
‘apartheid as associationism (shirk)’, Islamists offered the view of rawhid
as divine holism with socio-economic implications. The qur'anic text
‘God's nature upon which He created humankind’ (30:30) thus became
an exhortation to create a non-racial and unitary society in opposition to

Hermenecutical Keys
the racial divisions of apartheid. In relating rawhid, the most important
principle of Islamic belief, to the quest for an undivided society, Islamists
touched deep chords in the aspirations of the South African masses.”

A statement made by three ANC cadres just prior to their being sen-
tenced to death expands on this dream of a unitary South Africa built on
the ashes of apartheid: ‘The new South Africa must reflect our oneness,
breaking down the destructive idea and practices of defining our people
by race, colour or ethnic group’ (Upfront 1989, p. 21) Another ANC
cadre, Ashraf Karriem, explaining in court why he had embarked on the
path of armed struggle, said ‘Islam sees South Africa as oppressive and
exploitative and believes in the oneness of God and the oneness of peo
ple’ (The Argus, 10 November 1988, p. 1).

Tawhid, like tagwa, is for the engaged interpreter both a necessary
component of preunderstanding as well as a principle of interpretation.
In an unpublished speech, Rasool exemplified its first role as follows:

Belief in ratvhid with all its implications must have absolute hegemo-
ny in our consciousness and, until this has happened, we cannot
convincingly say that we fully realize the meaning of ‘Say indeed,
God's guidance is the true guidance’ (Qur'an 2:120]. Once belief in
the tawhid of God, with its implications, is embedded in our con-
sciousness, and we accept Allah's guidance as the true guidance, we
have [acquired] Islamic subjectivity. (1983)

‘The Qur'an deals with all dimensions of existence as an extension of an
interconnected reality. God's word, reflecting His personality, contains
the highest degree of holisin and comprehensiveness. Consequently, the
qur'anic moral philosophy covers all dimensions of human activity. Even
the idea that the Qur'an deals with spirituality and politics or morality
and economics does not adequately reflect the comprehensiveness of the
Qur'an, for this implies that these are distinct from each other. It rather
views all of these as integrated aspects of existence.

Viewing tawhid as a hermeneutical principle means that the different
approaches to the Qur’an ~ philosophical, spiritual, juristic or political -
must be regarded as components of a single tapestry. All of these are
required to express the fullness of its message, for no single approach can
adequately express it. A number of Call and MYM internal documents
insist that each of these approaches, particularly the political one, be
mindful of the principle of rarhid lest the Qur'an becomes a mere tool to
argue for a specific view entirely divorced from its basic ethos (MYM.
1978, pp. 2-4; 1987, pp. 3-4; Call of Islam 1988, p. 4).

Que

on & Pluralism

An approach to the Qur'an based on tawhid does not imply that all
its dimensions ought to receive equal public or private attention or expres-
sion all the time. The Qur'an is, after all, not understood in @ vacuum.
“The comprehensive nature of Islam’, says the MYM, ‘begs total leader-
ship, but necessitates heightened political leadership especially in South
Africa’ (MYM 1983, p. 6). The emphasis on the horizontal or so-called
this-worldly dimensions of the Qur'an as a ‘spiritual requirement of a
‘community steeped in ritualism’ (Rasool 1987, p. 3) was drawn from texts
such as Qur'an 107.

Have you observed the one who belies al-din?

‘That is the one who is unkind to the orphan,
and urges not the feeding of the needy.

So, woe to the praying ones,
who are unmindful of their prayer,

‘They do good to be seen,
and refrain from acts of kindnesses.

Engaged interpreters, such as Rasool, argued that ‘a narrow view of formal
worship deprives a community of spiritual life and an emphasis on the strug-
gle of the oppressed is thus needed to restore life to its worship’ (ibid., p. 3)

In constructing a qur‘anic hermeneutic of liberation, rawhid would
demand rejecting a discourse based on shirk, j.c., one of dualism whereby
theology is pursued separately from social analysis. To discover the theo-
logical element in a particular socio-economic or historical situation is to
imply an understanding of the latter. Such understanding will not come
from avoiding the so-called this-worldly, nor will that assist in bringing to
light the theological element in every human endeavour. The Islamic
ideal is integrated entities committed to one God and to holism.

The People('s Understanding) Shall Govern!

Nas, from the root n-1-s or ‘n-s, refers to ‘the people’ as a social collec~
tive and is usually employed as such in the Qur'an (¢.g., 114:5-65 72:6).
‘The Qur'an places humankind in a ‘world of sawhid where God, people
and nature display a meaningful and purposeful harmony’ (Shari'ati
1980, p. 86). The divine trust was placed exclusively in humankind’s
hands (33:72), thereby lifting humankind beyond matter to the status of
guardians of earthly life. The centrality of humankind is reflected in

Hermeneutical Keys

God’s choice of them as His vicegerent on the earth, and by the blowing
of God's spirit into them at the time of their creation (15:29; 32:9; 38:72).

‘The Qur'an says that God chose humankind for His vicegerency on
the earth and designated humankind as the earthly carrier of His respon-
sibilities: ‘Lo I am to create a vicegerent on the earth’, God announced
(2:30). To the protests of the angels that humankind would ‘wreak cor-
ruption and shed blood therein while we offer Thy limitless glory, and
praise Thee, and hallow Thy name.’ (ibid.), God responded that He
knew what they did not know (2:31). Thus distinguished, humankind
becomes the carrier of ‘a great trust’ (33:72) and the ‘recipient of enor-
mous power’ (4:32-3; 16:12-15). All the angels were commanded to
bow down in front of Adam as the personification of humankind (2:34),
despite the fact that they were created from light with no leanings
towards evil while humankind was created from ‘darkened mud’ (55:14),”

According to the Qur'an, the spirit of God covers all of humankind
and gives them a permanent sanctity (e.g., 15:29; 17:22, 70, 21:91).
Despite the regular reminders of the inevitable return to God, the spiritu-
alizing of human existence, which regards earthly life as incidental, is
unfounded in the qur’anic view of humankind. The human body, being a
carrier of a person’s inner core and of the spirit of God, is viewed
sacred, and physical concerns are, therefore, not incidental to the Qur'an.

‘Throughout the Qur'an, God's gentle sustainership over humankind
is evident on the one hand (2:243; 10:60; 12:38; 13:6) and an intense
identification with His servants on the other. God refers to humankind as
His who are always in a state of journeying to Him (23:60), and describes
Himself as ‘Lord of the people’ (14:1). On several occasions, the Qur'an
identifies the interests of humankind with those of God" and financial
assistance to people is regarded as a Joan to, or an investment, with
God." Humankind, all of them, are described in a hadith as ‘the family of
God’ (al-Albani 1979, 1, p. 189).

‘The 1980s saw the emergence of the notion of ‘the people’ as a sig-
nificant concept of resistance in the popular imagination, "The people’ as
8 socio-political category was presented as the revolutionary alternative to
the apartheid state, its institutions and its values. The emergence of the
University of the Western Cape as a ‘people's university’, the growth of
‘people's courts’, the search for ‘people’s history’, and the development
of ‘people’s theatre’, all during the 1980s, were but some of the manifes-
tations of this concept. All of these were aimed at bringing about a
greater awareness of, and involvement in, the struggle against apartheid.
‘They were, furthermore, intended to build viable alternatives to the

Qur'an, Libe

& Pluralism

structures and institutions of apartheid and to infuse people with the
sense of self-esteem that comes from assuming personal and political
responsibility for one’s own life. These were all elaborations of the grow-
ing call that ‘the people shall govern’, a phrase from the Freedom
Charter, the principal document of the ANC.

‘As I showed in chapter 1, the idea of the elevation of ‘the people’ as
sovereign and a standard of legitimacy met with considerable Mustim
ideological resistance." An inability to recognize various and distinct
kinds of sovereignty has confused many committed Muslims who believe
in an elusive sovereignty that resides in a solitary proprietor, God. Yet,
God clearly does not exercise sovereignty in a political sense. The logical
outcome of confusing the sovereignty of God with that of temporal politi-
cal sovereignty has been that people assume sovereignty in God's name.
‘This simply has to lead to tyranny in His name." ‘The call of the people
of South Africa, that power and sovereignty belonged to them, was an
affirmation of a basic political right which had been denied to them. It
‘was a call to free the rulers of temporal coercive political power and to
enable the people to determine their own political destiny. The notion of
popular sovereignty was located in the unjust control of political sover-
eignty and was entirely unrelated to the sovereignty of God. ‘The vast
majority of South Africans had been walked over since the arrival of the
colonists in 1652, Nothing of the dignity and honour promised by God,
‘or the manifestations of His spirit blown into humankind, had been
allowed to surface during more than three centuries of relentless and
ruthless oppression and economic exploitation. In opposition to a history
‘of subjugation, the cry that emerged from the oppressed was that ‘the
people shall govern’

Given the stewardship of humankind on the earth and God's over
whelming concern for them, two hermeneutical implications follow.
First, it becomes essential that the Qur'an be interpreted in a manner
which gives particular support to the interest of people as a whole or
which favours the interests of the majority among them, rather than that
‘of a small minority." Second, interpretation must be shaped by the expe-
rience and aspirations of humankind as distinct from, and often opposed
to, that of a privileged minority among them.

‘The notion of humankind as a hermencutical key poses two theologi-
cal problems which require a considered response; the first problem
relates to the value of people as a measurement of truth and the second
relates to the question of authenticity.

First, if one accepts the understanding and role of humankind as

Hermeneutical Keys

outlined above, then does it follow that the interest of God is identical
with that of humankind? If so, is this not a way of elevating the humanum,
the truly human, as criteria of truth, even the criterion of truth, a criteri-
‘on whereby Islam itself is to be judged? Humankind as a hermeneutical
key is located and affirmed within the framework of tawhid and grounded
in the absolute. Without people using language, there is no concept of
God to speak of, no divine intervention in history, and for the Muslim,
without revelation there is no real meaning of humankind as kumanum.
‘Thus, one may argue that while the humanum is a criterion of truth, it is
not an autonomous hwmanum as an absolute criterion that is being advo-
cated, but one drawing its sustenance from tawhid. Furthermore,
humankind is one hermeneutical principle among others and this serves
to balance its role in the overall interpretative process.

Second, a legitimate concer of all those committed to the sacred-
ness of the text is what may be described as ‘hermeneutical promiscuity’,
where anyone is allowed to get into bed with the text. When a particular
group whose legitimacy has been traditionally established and upheld is
no longer in control of interpretation, what guarantees does one have that
the sacredness of the text will not give way to an exegetical free-for-all
where every text is stripped entirely of its religious legitimacy?

From the outset, it is important to acknowledge that the very idea of
qur'anic hermeneutics challenges traditional concepts of the sacredness
of the text. Irrespective of the piety, awe and reverence with which the
text has been approached by traditional scholarship, the text has always
been something about which scholars have differed. Furthermore, in a
context of injustice, if concepts such as the sacredness or theological
legitimacy of a text are not related to the struggle for justice, then these
concepts are themselves little more than additional weapons in the ideo
logical arsenal of injustice. As for the problem of ‘hermeneutical promis-
cuity', one can argue that this task is embarked upon by Muslims who
have chosen to be committed to the text. Their interpretation is not the
wild speculation of individuals but a goal-oriented communal search for
meaning. The goals of this interpreting community come from the depths
of their humanity and are affirmed in the text beyond any doubt.

Thave outlined the importance of humankind and the significance of
their interests and experiences as factors in shaping a qur’anic hermeneu-
tic. The Qur'an, however, singles out a particular section of humankind,
the marginalized, and makes a conscious and deliberate option for them
against neutrality and objectivity, on the one hand, and the powerful and
‘oppressors, on the other,

Qar eration & Pluralism

From the Vantage Point of the Disempowered

and Marginalized

From the root d-“f, mustad‘af refers to someone who is oppressed or
deemed weak and of no consequence and is treated in an arrogant fash-
ion. The mustad‘afun are thus those people of ‘inferior’ social status who
are vulnerable, marginalized or oppressed in the socio-economic sense.
The Qur'an also uses other terms to describe the lower and impoverished
classes of society, such as aradhil (marginalized) (11:27; 26:70: 22:5), the
fugara’ (poor) (2:271; 9:60) and the masakin (indigent) (2:83, 177; 4:8),
‘The major difference in the term mustad‘afun is that someone else is
responsible for that condition. One can only be mustad‘af as a conse-
quence of the behaviour or policies of the arrogant and powerful,

‘The Qur'an deals with the mustad‘afun in three categories: Muslim,
Aafir and those comprising both groups. Qur'an 4:75 exhorts the Meccan
community of Muslims to ‘fight in the way of God and of those
mustad‘afun men, women, and children, whose cry is “Our Lord! Rescue
us from this town whose people are oppressors’, Qur'an 7:150 uses the
term with reference to Aaron, the brother of Moses, who complained that
the Israelites had weakened or marginalized him. Qur'an 34:31~3 deals
with the mustad'afun as the rejecting and ingrate Other and distinguishes
between the ‘wrongdoers’ who were oppressed on the one hand, and the
arrogant and powerful (mustakbiru), on the other.

‘Those who had been marginalized will say unto those who had glo-
ried in their arrogance ‘Had it not been for you we would certainly
have been believers!"

{And} thove who were wont to glory in their arrogance will say
unto those who had been marginalized; "Why ~ did we keep you
{forcibly} from following the right path after it had become obvious
to you? Nay it was but you [yourselves] who were guilty!”

But those who had been marginalized will say unto those who glo-
tied in their arrogance: "Nay, [what kept us away was your) devising
of false arguments night and day against God's messages ~ as you
did when you persuaded us to blaspheme against God and to claim
that there are powers that could rival Him! (34; 31-3)

‘The contrast between the mustad“afun and the mustakbirun in this text
occurs in other parts of the Qur'an as well. Unlike this text, which
describes them as hurling accusations at each other, elsewhere the Qur'an
makes a clear choice for the mustad‘afun against the mustakbirun even
though the former may not be Muslim (7:136~7; 28:5).

Hermeneu

cal Keys

And so We inflicted Our retribution on them, and caused them to
drown in the sea, because they had given a lie to Our messages and
had been heedless of them.

‘Whereas unto the people who had been deemed utterly low, we
gave as their heritage the eastern and western parts of the land We
had blessed (7:136-7)

In the chapter of the Qur'an called al-Qasas (The Story) a preferential
option for the mustad‘afun is made in unambiguous terms, despite their
rejection of God. This preferential option for the oppressed is reflected in
the particularized identification of God Himself with the oppressed, the
lifestyles and methodology of all the Abrahamic prophets, the qur’anic
denunciation of the powerful and the accumulation of wealth, and the
Qur'an’s message of liberation to women and slaves. Furthermore, a
number of verses link faith and religion with a humanism and a sense of
socio-economic justice. A denial of these is linked with a rejection of jus-
tice, compassion and sharing (107:1~3, 1045 22:45).

According to the Qur'an, virtually all the prophets, including
Muhammad, came from peasant or working-class backgrounds and the
option for the marginalized seems to be implicit in their very origins. All
the Abrahamic prophets mentioned in the Qur’an had their origins
among the peasants and were generally shepherds in their formative
years. The singular exception, Moses, was destined to sojourn in the
desert of Madyan where he was employed as a shepherd for eight or ten
years (28:27). One may describe this as a process of ‘deschooling’ in the
ways of the powerful, in anticipation of his mission as a prophet of God
and a liberator of his people

Opposition invariably came from the ruling and dominant classes,
whom the Qur'an describes as the mala’ (rulers or aristocracy) (11:27,
38; 23:24, 33; 26:34), mutrafun (ostentatious) (34:34; 43:23), and the
mustakbirun (arrogant) (16:22; 23:67; 31:7). Support for the prophets
was usually forthcoming from the aradhil (lower classes), the fugara
(poor) and the masakin (indigent). Al-Tabari describes Muhammad’s fol
lowers as ‘the weak, the destitute, young men and women. However, of
the elderly and socially distinguished none [initially followed him’
(1879, 3, p. 1563). In fact, the disdain of the aristocracy for social inter-
course with slaves, serfs and workers was a significant factor blocking
their own entry into Islam. In Muhammad's latter years in Mecca, the
aristocracy indicated their willingness to enter Islam if he got rid of the
‘ciff-raff’ surrounding him. The Qur'an condemned such offers and
warned Muhammad against considering them (8:28, cf, 6:52-4).

Qu Liberation & Pluralism

‘There are other qur’anic examples of this tension between the power
less and the powerful. Moses entering the court of Pharaoh in his shep-
herd’s garb; Jesus emerges as a powerful advocate of the poor struggling
against the entrenched Jewish priesthood and the merchants who had
allied themselves to the Roman conquerors and Hud remonstrates with
those ‘who build a landmark on every elevated place to amuse themselves
and fine buildings in the hope of living therein forever’ (Qur'an 26:128),
Salih shatters the hopes of the rich and the corrupt by his refusal to be
co-opted into their value system (1:62); Joseph resists the sexual harass-
ment of the powerful and wealthy Zulaikhah and suffers the conse
quences of it (12:23-30) and Shu’aib struggles against the merchants for
economic justice (11:89). The choice of prophets from particular social
origins and the appeal which their message had, and continues to have,
for the marginalized and the oppressed shows the revolutionary content of
their messages, which threaten to destroy socio-economic systems based
‘on exploitation or belief systems based on shirk and superstition.

The insurrectionary and preferential option for the mustad‘afun is
particularly evident from the way of life of Muhammad and his early fol-
lowers in Mecca. He was instructed by the Qur’an to remain committed
to the marginalized despite the short-term financial and economic advan-
tages for Islam which would have followed the subsequent entry into
Islam of the wealthy and the powerful had he abandoned them (80:5-10).
‘This would have meant a reversion to pre-Muhammadan monotheism,
which did not challenge the socio-economic practices of Quraysh in any
way. This identification with the marginalized was also a personal choice
of the Prophet, as is evident from his prayer to ‘continue living among the
oor, to die among the poor and to be raised among the poor’ (Ibn Maja
1979, p. 84). His wife, “A’ishah, described his character as a ‘living reflec-
tion of the Qur'an’ (Ibn Hanbal 1978, 2, p. 188). This is significant and
is equally applicable to the option that he exercised for the mustad‘afun.
Muhammad's personal way of life and path also reflects the qur'anic bias,
Ix was the result of a particular choice that he had made for himself when
‘wealth was available. He washed his own clothing, patched it, repaired his
sandals, served himself, gave fodder to his camel, ate with his servant,
kneaded dough with him, and carried his own goods to the market (Ibn
Fudi 1978, p. 152). Anas ibn Malik says: “Dates were presented to the
messenger of God and I saw him eating them, Due to hunger he was sit-
ting on the support of something.’ (Al-Tirmidhi 1990, p, 138)

Muhammad's way of life, however, was not merely a choice based on

100

Hermeneutical Keys
personal asceticism but was part of the qur’anic objective of an egalitari-
an social order. The existing socio-economic order was denounced for its
inequalities and this denunciation went along with active measures to
empower the mustad'afun. Muhammad abolished ground rent, usury and
all speculative and exploitative economic practices. Usurious transactions
were prohibited with a warning of ‘war from God and His Prophet’
against those who continued such practices (Qur'an 2:279). Creditors
were exhorted to recover only their capital sums, ‘but if you dispense
even of that then it would be more virtuous for you" (2:280). The aboli-
tion of the leasing of lands negated landlordism and these ordinances or
Jegal injunctions were backed up by qur‘anic exhortations to the wealthy
to spend whatever was beyond necessity (2:219). To facilitate the
empowerment of the poor and dispossessed, the Qur’an announces that
in the wealth of the rich there is an intrinsic share for them (70:25;
51:19), The principle of distributive justice was unambiguously affirmed
so ‘that the wealth should not only circulate amongst the rich’ (59:7).
Elaborating on this principle, Muhammad mentioned various forms of
wealth and power that had to be shared with those who did not have
them ‘until we thought that none among us had the right to any of our
superfluities’ (Ibn Hazm n.d., 6, p. 157).

‘The social and economic implications of the doctrine of rowhid, the
idea that one Creator means a single humanity, were evident from the
beginning of the prophetic mission. At the heart of Muhammad’s oppo-
nents’ contempt was his lowly origin and his option for others from a
similar background, The aristocracy of Mecca, with their commercially
vested interests, were threatened both by his challenge to their traditional
religion based on shirk and his emphasis on justice for the oppressed and
marginalized.

‘The most significant text of the South African qur’anic discourse on
liberation is undoubtedly Qur'an 28:4-8. This particular text was quoted
with unceasing regularity at the rallies of virtually every Islamist organiza-
tion ~ both fundamentalist and progressive ~ during the uprisings of the
1980s, as well as in their magazines, newspapers and pamphlets. The vext
reads as follows:

And it is Our will to bestow Our grace upon the mustad'afun on the
earth, to make them the leaders), and to make them the heirs, and to
establish them firmly on the earth, and to let Pharaoh and Haman
and their hosts experience through those (the Israelites) the very
thing against which they sought to protect themselves. (28:5)

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Qur'an, Liberation & Plar

The use of mustad‘afun in this text was applied to all the oppressed peo-
ple of South Africa, irrespective of their religious background, as is evi-
dent from the following nwo quotations:

© Mustad‘afeen of our land, the system that we have fought against for
‘so long and paid for so dearly in life, blood, and property is evil and
rotten to the core. (Qibla n.d., One Solution, Islamic Revolution, p. 2)
[The task of the Muslim community is} to join forces with the pro-
gressive streams among the mustad’afun . . . to contribute towards
the unity of the mustad'afun, .. . to declare clearly to the oppressors:
‘If you rise against the oppressed or stand in the path of the
oppressed, we are commanded by God to defend ourselves against
injustice and oppression.’ (Solomon 1985, p. 6)

‘The text referring to the mustad'afun fi'l-ard, cited above, occurs in the
beginning of the chapter of the Qur'an called al-Qasas (The Story) (28),
a chapter which deals essentially with the flight of the Israelites from
Egypt. The significance of this example of liberation and of God's com-
mitment to the political freedom of people, irrespective of their faith
‘commitment, is more closely examined when we consider the question of
solidarity with the religious or rejecting Other in chapter 6, Here I only
wish to point out that the case of the mustad'afun in these verses, a refer-
ence to the Israelites who were oppressed by Pharaoh and the Egyptian
ruling class, reflects God's preferential option for the oppressed,
Furthermore, the promise of liberation is held out despite the absence of
any commitment to faith in God and belief in His prophets. As for
Pharaoh, the signs rejected by him seem to have been more than just the
prophethood of Moses or the divinity of God, because in that rejection
most of the Israelites shared, The signs rejected by Pharaoh evidently
included the oppressed and marginalized.

In the discussion of sawhid and al-nas we have seen how apartheid
divided the people of South Africa, “The people’ in South Africa were
transformed into a mass of mustad"afun under a vicious system which not
only meant separation, but an existence of discrimination and the crimi-
alization of any attempt to escape from it. The engaged interpreter in
‘South Africa may certainly ask, ‘If God regards the Israelites as His peo-
ple and demands that His prophets become of them, destroy their
oppressors and lead them into freedom, then why would He treat the
people of South Africa any differently?”

‘The need for the interpreter both to place himself or herself among the
‘marginalized and within their struggles, as well as to interpret the text from

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Hermeneut

1 Keys

the underside of history, is based on the notion of the divine and prophetic
preferential option for the oppressed. Those committed to liberation in
South Africa have thus argued that a similar bias must be exercised by any-
‘one who approaches the Qur'an and who wants to bring its basic spirit to
life. This is a conscious denial of ‘objectivity’. In its place is offered a sub-
jectivity which enables one to walk in the path of the prophets.

‘The engaged interpreter approaches the text with a conscious deci-
sion to search for meaning, which responds creatively to the suffering of
the mustad‘afun and holds out the most promise for liberation and justice.
Ic is within a context of oppression that the interpreter is called upon to
bear witness to God. A commitment to humankind and active solidarity
with the mustad‘afun results in a re-reading of both social reality and the
text from their perspective. This re-reading and the engagement in social
analysis from that point of departure shapes the search for a qur’anic
hermeneutic of pluralism for liberation. ‘The objective of this search is an
effective qur'anic contribution to the ongoing struggles for justice on the
part of the country’s people; a struggle whose participants are mainly the
religious Other, for they are the overwhelming majority of the
mustad afun.

Through the Eyes of Justice

‘The Qur'an uses two terms to refer to justice: gist and ‘adl. Qist means
‘equity’, ‘justice’, ‘to give someone his or her full portion’ (Lane 1980,
‘q-s-t'), and the agent noun mugsit is one of the names of God, ‘Ad!
‘means ‘to act equitably, justly, or rightly’ (ibid., ‘ad?). "These two terms
are used interchangeably in the Qur'an (49:9; 2:282) and, according to it,
justice forms the basis of the natural order: ‘And God has created the
heavens and the earth in truth; and so that every person may be justly
compensated for what he [she] had earned and none be wronged’
(45:22). This verse, as well as Qur’an 39:69, equates justice with truth,
‘God (Himself) bears witness that He is the Upholder of justice’ (4:18).
In two verses, the Qur'an exhorts the faithful to uphold justice as an act
of witness unto Him (4:135; 5:6) and those who sacrifice their lives in the
path of establishing justice are equated with those who achieved martyr-
dom in ‘the path of God” (3:20).

‘An understanding of ‘ad! and gist based on cazshid is well illustrated
in the first verses of the chapter of the Qur'an titled “The Gracious’:

‘The Most Gracious has imparted this Qur'an. He has created
humankind; He has imparted unto him [her] speech. The sun and

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Qurvan, Liberation & Pluralism

the moon follow courses computed; the stars and the trees submit;
and the skies He has raised high; and He has set up the balance of
justice in order that you may not transgress the measure. So, estab-
lish weight with justice and fall not short in the balance. It is He who
has spread out the earth for all] His creatures. (55;1~10)

‘These verses place humankind and the task of doing justice within the
context of their responsibility to the Creator, on the one hand, and the
order which runs through the cosmos, on the other.” It is within this
overall context that humankind are being warned against ‘transgressing
the measure’ and exhorted to ‘weigh [your dealings) with justice’. The
enforcement of justice is given as one of the objectives of revelation
(56:25) and it is seen as a stepping stone to tagwa (5:6). Some scholars,
such as Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah, are, in fact, of the opinion that justice
is the raison d'éere for the establishment of religion: ‘God has sent His
‘Messengers and revealed His Books so that people may establish gist,
upon which the heavens and the earth stand. And when the signs of jus-
tice appear in any manner, then that is a reflection of the shan'‘ah and the
religion of God’ (1953, pp. 14-16).

Islamic society is expected to uphold justice as the basis of socio-eco-
nomic life. The Qur'an is often specific about those areas of social affairs
wherein lapses are most likely to occur, such as the trust of orphans and
adopted children (4:3; 33:5), matrimonial relations (4:3; 49:9), contrac
tual dealings (2:282), judicial matters (5:42; 4:56), interfaith relations
(60:8), business (11:65), and dealings with one’s opponents (5:8). The
Qur'an postulates the idea of a universe created with justice as its basis,
‘The natural order, according to the Qur'an, is one rooted in justice and
deviation from it is disorder (fimnah). "The status quo in a particular social
order, irrespective of how long it has survived or how stable it has
become, does not enjoy an intrinsic legitimacy in Islam. Injustice is a
deviation from the natural order and, like shirk, though it may stabilize
over centuries as did shirk in pre-Islamic Mecca, it is, nonetheless,
regarded as a disturbance in ‘the balance’. In the qur’anic paradigm, jus
tice and the natural order based on it are values to be upheld, while
socio-political stability per se is not.” When confronted with this distur-
bance in the natural order through the systematic erosion of human
rights (or threats to the ecosystem), the Qur'an imposes an obligation on
the faithful to challenge such a system until it is eliminated and the order
is once again restored to its natural state of justice. In another text that
was very significant in South African Islamic liberatory discourse, the
Qur'an presents revelation itself as the ideological weapon whereby

Hermeneutical Keys

disorder (fimah) must be countered: ‘Indeed we have sent our Apostles
with clear proof; And through them we have bestowed revelation and the
balance so that humankind may behave with gist; And we have provided
you with iron, in which there is awesome power as well as (other) benefits
for humankind’ (57:25). The Qur’an establishes itself as a dynamic force
for justice, legitimates the use of iron with ‘its awesome power’ as a
means of achieving it and encourages an active struggle for it. The
Qur'an, as indicated here, repeatedly contrasts justice with oppression
and transgression (3:25; 6:160; 10:47; 16:111) and imposes on its follow-
ers the obligation to destroy the latter and establish the former.

Virtually every publication, speech or sermon by the progressive and
fundamentalist Islamists during the 1980s appealed to the qur'anic
demand for the faithful to rise as "God’s witnesses for justice’. If single
concept could be said to have been the axis around which Muslim resis-
tance to apartheid rotated, then it was that of justice for the oppressed
and marginalized. Texts denouncing injustice and demanding justice
were tirelessly invoked and when the text did not specify it, then justice
was read into the translation as an implication. For example, the verse
“And fight them on until there is no more fimah and the din is for God”
(2:193) was regularly presented as ‘Fight them on until there is no more
tumult and oppression and there prevail justice and faith in God.’

Besides being potent anti-apartheid weapons, for which abundant
references could easily be found in the Qur'an, for most progressive
Islamists justice and equity were also key socio-economic concepts which
had to lead to an egalitarian and just society. The qur'anic understanding
of justice may be said to embrace the socio-economic dimensions but, as
is evident from the qur'anic texts cited, the term it employs, gist, is wider
in scope than these. The crying need of the South African people for
socio-economic justice has often resulted in a rather myopic view of the
qur’anic meaning of justice. Consequently terms such as ‘ad! and gist and
their qur'anic antonyms, culm and ‘udwan (eviVoppression and transgres-
sion) were invoked primarily to refer to political justice or injustice within
the context of racial domination. Justice employed in such a context thus
seldom embraced, for example, the socio-religious liberation of women.
Similarly, the idea of 2ulm al-nafs (to wrong oneself), an important
dimension of the qur’anic understanding of injustice, was never invoked
in Mustim liberation rhetoric, nor did it receive any coverage in the
speeches or written works that emanated in the period under discussion.
At an internal organizational level, both the Call and the MYM acknowl-
edged the need to redress the unbalanced appreciation of ‘adf and gist

105

Liberar

Quer"

although they failed to do much in practical terms. Internal MYM papers
appealed to its membership to become rounded personalities with a com-
mitment to comprehensive justice. Towards the end of the 1980s the
MYM increasingly took up the more radical issue of gender discrimina-
tion in the shari‘ah. The Call has, since its inception, dealt with various
other dimensions of injustice such as the oppression of women and reli-
gious minorities in Muslim countries and humankind’s injustice toward
the physical environment. This attention, though, was invariably
drowned under the more vociferously proclaimed and vigorously pursued
political dimensions of injustice.

‘The present work is an argument for the legitimacy of hermeneutical
ideas emerging out of the interaction between Islam and the South
African struggle for liberation, However, the uncritical imposition of the
requirements of the struggle and the ideas coming therefrom on to the
text is to deprive the struggle of the visionary insights that a scripture
such as the Qur'an is capable of supplying. The context of a liberation
struggle not only has something to say to the text; the text also has some-
thing to say to that context.

‘The Qur'an offers itself as an inspiration and guide for comprehen~
sive insurrection against an unjust status quo. It, furthermore, asks to be
read through the eyes of a commitment to the destruction of oppression
and aggression and the establishment of justice, In a situation of injus-
tice, the Qur'an, by its own admission, is compelled to be the ideological
tool for comprehensive insurrection against oppression in all its manifes-
tations. This has two implications. Firstly, one cannot justify adopting an
objective approach to the Qur'an while one is surrounded by oppression,
institutionalized or not, without searching for ways in which the Qur'an
can be used against it. Neutrality or objectivity in such a context is, in
fact, a sin which excludes one from the ranks of those imbued with
tagwa, those to whom the Qur’an pledges guidance. Secondly, the
approach to the Qur’an as a tool for insurrection presupposes all the
ideological and theological commitments as well as an affinity to the
values discussed earlier on in this chapter, ‘These values are concretized
in a struggle with humankind and the oppressed to create an order
based on ramhid and justice. This struggle continues during the process
of understanding the Qur'an.

Jihad as Praxis and a Path to Understanding

Jihad literally means ‘to struggle’, to ‘exert oneself or ‘to spend energy
or wealth’ (Ibn Manzur, n.d., 1, p. 709). In the Qur'an, it is frequently

106

Hermen:

followed by the expressions ‘in the path of God’ and ‘with your wealth
and your selves’. For Muslims, the term jihad has also come to mean the
“sacralization of combat’ (Schleifer 1982, p. 122). Despite its popular
‘meaning as a sacred armed struggle or war, the term jihad was always
understood by Muslims to embrace a broader struggle to transform both
oneself and society. The Qur'an itself uses the word in its various mean-
ings ranging from warfare (4:90; 25:52; 9:41) to contemplative spiritual
struggle (22:78; 29:6) and even exhortation (29:8; 31:15).

Thave rendered jihad as ‘struggle and praxis’. Praxis may be defined
as ‘conscious action undertaken by a human community that has the
responsibility for its own political determination . . . based on the realiza-
tion that humans make history’ (Chopp 1989, p. 137). Given the qur’an-
ic comprehensive use of the term and the way jihad is intended to trans-
form both oneself and society, one may say that jihad is simultaneously a
struggle and a praxis.

‘The commonly assumed definition of jihad in South African liberato-
ty rhetoric reflects a break with traditional juristic understandings of it.
Jihad’, said a Qibla pamphlet, ‘is the Istamic paradigm of the liberation
struggle . . . an effort, an exertion to the utmost, a striving for truth and
justice’ (Qibla n.d, Arise and Bear Wimess, p. 2). Similarly, the Call
argued that, for Muslims ‘the struggle for freedom and justice in South
Africa is a sacred one. Any Muslim who abandons the struggle in South
Africa, abandons Islam. Jihad in the path of God is part of the iman of a
‘Muslim’ (Call of Islam 1985, We Fight On, p. 1). The centrality of justice
as the objective of jihad, rather than the establishment of Islam as a reli-
gious system, was common in virtually all the public pronouncements of
the Islamists. “The purpose of jihad is to . . . destroy and eradicate injus~
tice and not to replace one unjust system with another, or to replace one
dominant group with another. Jihad is, therefore, a ceaseless, continuous,
super conscious and effective struggle for justice’ (Qibla n.d, Arise and
Bear Wimess, p. 2). Numerous anecdotes of resistance in the lives of the
first generation of Muslims as well as the abundant qur’anic texts dealing
with jihad were regularly invoked in support both of the essentially non-
violent uprisings and the armed struggle.

Praxis as a source of knowledge has always been widely recognized in
Islamic scholarship and the Qur'an itself is explicit in its view that theory
can be based on praxis: ‘And to those who strive in us [our path] to them
We shall show our ways’ (29:69). The Qur'an lays great emphasis on
orthopraxis and strongly suggests that virtuous deeds and jihad are also
ways of understanding and knowing. The Qur'an establishes jihad as the

107

Qure

path to establishing justice and praxis as the way of experiencing and
comprehending truth. Jihad, as praxis serving as a hermeneutical key,
assumes that human life is essentially practical; theology follows. As for
the presence of the divine in the process of transformation, the verse stat-
ing that ‘God does not change the conditions of a people until they
change what is in themselves’ (13:11), was regularly invoked to insist that
history and society is the terrain where, for people, transformation effec-
tively takes place.

In South Africa a continual assessment of the meaning and contem-
porary relevance of the Qur'an occurred through this foundation of prax-
is: ‘This involvement [in the struggle], the conflict that this involvement
is going to lead to, our solidarity in the halgah [study circles) and our
(qur'anic} reflections are going to teach us . . . This is the meaning of
“and to those who strive in Our path, to them We shall show Our ways"
(Call of Islam 1988). Along with liberation theologians elsewhere, these
activists turned to praxis as ‘a way of making theology less a false theolo-
‘gy, less an academic illusion and less an incoherent abstraction’ (Chopp
1989, p. 37). "The Review of Faith’, a Call manual for activists, talks
about ‘a dialectical process whereby our jihad will be informed by the
Qur'an and our faith as much as our understanding of these will be
informed by our jihad’ (Call of Islam 1985, The Review of Faith, p. 41).

In the midst of an ongoing experience of suffering and resistance, on
the one hand, and a commitment to praxis as an expression of faith, on
the other, a clear implication is made that both faith and understanding
take shape in the concrete programmes of resistance against suffering and
dehumanization. While all the progressive Islamists agreed on actual par-
ticipation in the day-to-day struggles of the oppressed, the specific orga-
nizational and ideological framework within which ‘jihad-as-praxis’
occurred was the subject of intense debate. In chapter 1 we saw that,
while there was considerable discussion about ‘a purely Muslim involve-
ment’ in the struggle, this did not actually materialize. As soon as those
Muslims desirous of working in isolation started organizing, they were
inexorably drawn into the work of others. On the other hand, groups like
the Call and al-Jihad had from an early stage already been committed to
a particular movement's liberative praxis, that of the ANC-UDF.

‘The major issue for an organization like the Call was thus not
whether its understandings and approaches to qur’anic concepts should
be shaped by the liberation struggle, but whether they could be shaped
entirely by a particular political tendency within it. The way this question
was dealt with is also reflective of a hermeneutical method which is
simultaneously liberative and heuristic (working through trial and error),

108

Hermeneutic:

Keys

‘Some-people say that they do want to join this group or that group
because they are not hundred percent sure where it is going to end;
and that they cannot afford to make errors with the future of the
ummah, Excessive fear of making mistakes can often be a mask
behind which we hide our cowardice and our unwillingness 10 drop
our partnership with unjust systems, because it benefits us financial-
ly. It is also convenient for them to attack others for tactical errors in
the struggle because they do not understand that errors come from
action. Because they are not doing anything, it is hardly surprising
that they do not commit any errors. (Call of Islam 1988, p. 37)

At an internal level, these issues were dealt with in a less polemical, more
considered manner. Within their own ranks they also raised the following
questions:

a) To what extent should we allow our praxis, which is increasingly
limited to UDF programmes and takes place within the ideological
framework of National Democracy, to be the exclusive foundation
whereby our qur'anic reflections take place?

) Can an Islamic movement afford to link itself to purely secular
movements in the way that we have? To what extent has this secular-
ized us as individuals and as a group? Has it blocked the growth of a
truly comprehensive attitude to the Qur'an? (Call of Islam 1987, p. 5)

‘The organization attempted to respond to these concerns by greater
‘emphasis on quranic reflection, internal moral exhortations and prayer.
‘This was wholly inadequate against the underlying ideological messages,
imbibed from a deep commitment to solidarity, within the ‘organizations
of the people’. The significant point in this theological method, though,
is a rejection of the traditional ideas of theology and interpretation as
happening before and outside of a historical process, a notion that pre-
supposes that a reading and understanding of the text provide one with
absolute certainties. In its place heuristic ‘reflections’ were offered. Those
who claimed to have access to certainties were the ones paralysed into
inaction despite the desire of some among them to engage injustice.
Those who were committed to tentativeness were actually fully engaged
in the struggle. The attitude of the progressive Islamists finds a resonance
in Christian liberation theology in Latin America:

‘One must make a philosophical judgement among the existing philo-
sophical methodologies in order to get an authentic and liberative
understanding of human existence. In like manner, one must make a
political judgement on the political processes and movements

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Qur‘an, Liberation & Pluralism

around, choosing the one that lends itself best to ensuring the libera-
tive authenticity on the part of the one who makes that commitment,
But there are no magical, eternal guarantees in the revolutionary
process as such (Boff 1985, p. 99).

Conclusion: The Qur'an Speaks

T have explained the way God identifies with al-nas and the relationship
between God’s path and that of al-nas, His preferential option for the
oppressed and marginalized and the importance of establishing justice,
‘The Qur'an undertakes to teach the believing activist in the midst of his
or her struggle to establish zawhid, tagwa, and to give concrete effect to
the preferential option for the oppressed through jihad. As Ayatullah
Mahmud Taleghani (4. 1979) put it, ‘the way of God is that way which
leads to the well-being of human society as a whole, the way of justice, of
human freedom so that a few cannot gain dominance . . - appropriating
for themselves the natural resources which God has placed at the disposal
of all? (Taleghani 1982, p. 79). To engage in qur’anic hermeneutics in a
situation of injustice is to do theology and to experience faith as solidarity
with the oppressed and marginalized in a struggle for liberation, ‘This rep-
resents a break from both traditional and modern theology. It is different
in at least three aspects

Firstly, the most significant difference is in the location of the inter-
preter. When jihad is invoked on the streets in concert with the religious
Other rising against injustice; when the Qur'an is invoked in a court of
Jaw as legitimation for the armed struggle; and when God is fervently
petitioned before a raid on a government building or on the eve of the
outcome of a trial on charges of terrorism, then the break with more ‘reli-
gious’ or ‘academic’ ways of approaching theology is very significant. In
fact, it stands in opposition to both.

Liberation theology insists that, in conditions of oppression and mar-
ginalization, Islam can only truly be experienced as the liberative praxis of
solidarity. This is in contrast to both traditional and modern theology,
The former struggles to retain its hold over the believers with its reduction
of Islam to the formal rituals, themselves stripped of spiritual depth by the
preponderance of legalities. Modern theology, on the other hand, as
Rebecca Chopp has pointed out, is located in and addresses itself to the
secularity of the privileged world and the serious thinkers therein, while
liberation theology is located in and addresses the marginalized world,

110

Herme

‘Secondly, theology living in a world of ‘violence and hope, reflection
and action, spirituality and politics means that theology is always, to use
Gutierrez’s expression, “[consciously] a second act”? (cited in Chopp
1989, p. 59). While faith may come before liberative praxis as a form of
preunderstanding, theology does not. What others may thus denounce as
‘post hoc theological justification is regarded by liberation theology as both
inevitable and a privileged option.

‘Thirdly, truth, for the engaged interpreter, can never be absolute. As
‘one's hermeneutic continuously moves on, one is pushed towards ever-
increasing and authentic truth; truth which, in turn, leads to greater liber-
ive praxis. There is no point at which God has disclosed the truth to the
interpreter, but it continues to be disclosed, for there is no end to jihad
and thus no end to His promise to disclose. The Qur'an is explicit that
there is a ‘Truth’ to be known and it is possible to have deep convictions
about it. That only dimensions or layers of this truth are knowable, how-
ever, is acknowledged in traditional and modern scholarship. The differ-
cence in liberation theology is that

it does not aim to prove eternal truths that are to be applied subse
quently to history; it does not merely reflect on existential truth that
is poetically disclosed through history. Rather liberation theology
helps create truth . . . for theological re
truth that is a way, upon a Word who has pitched . . .
midst of history. (Chopp 1989, p. 61)

It was and remains inevitable that this word of God that has pitched its
tent in the midst of history would be affected by the storms, rain, wind
and, yes, the sunshine, surrounding it. The word has regularly become
contested terrain as various entities staked claims to its ownership. For
‘Muslims in South Africa during the 1980s, much of the controversy of
these claims revolved around the question of space for the religious
Other. The progressive Islamists argued fervently that faith and raqua
enabled them to access the text. They ignored the clerics, and insisted
that the word also had space for all the marginalized. The word of God
also excludes; but the excluded were now seen to be those who, despite
possessing the correct formulae of faith, had made themselves unworthy
of the description muslim by their participation in the structures of
oppression.

Qervan, Liberation & Plu

ism

Notes

|. The mitwok (here miswook) was 2 twig wied by the early Arabs, including Muhammad, for
deaning teeth. les use is stil in vogue among a number of Musis who adhere to a literalist
interpretation of the sunnah. The reference to it in ehis quotacion is thus also a backhanded
‘riticism of the selective meerpretation of dhe meaning of sunnah by Muslim traditionalists.
2. Uerally, without how’, Le. to accept certain qur'anic doctrinal statements without further
‘enquiry. With the notion of ba ayf, Abenad fbn Hanbal (d. 855) arcempted to resolve the
conflict between reason and revelation. This notion was particularly employed to respond to
the apparently anchropomorphic expressions regarding God in the Qur'an

3. Literally, ‘to measure, estrrate’. later meaning ‘to assign specifically by measure’ as though
God measured out His decrees. Ie deals with the doctrine of redetermination i#., God, by
His qade (decree) and qodr (power). dezarmines all events and acts.

4. Al-Zamakhahari, an exegete who frequently supphes the pre-qur’anic meaning of words,
explains chat the word wagin was used in pre-islamic days for a horse which exercised cau-
{don in protecting its hoofs against injury due to uneven or stony surfaces (nd, 1, p. 36) The
root wary thus came to denote protecting something oF oneself from whatever 12 harmful
Jafri has demonstrated how the term in pre-tlam was voxd of any religious, moral or ethical
connotations and how the Qur'an transformed its usage into a term of ‘great moral sign
cance of the most comprehensive ... ethical quality in a man’s Me (atri 1980, p. 117).

5. In ts various forms the term occurs 242 times i the Qur'an, of which 102 eimes are in
(Meccan verses and the resc in Medinan ones. In common Muslin discourse, and in several
English translations of the Qur'an, ics meaning has been confined to ‘the fear of God’, The
Quran does use ic in a manner which embraces this connotation (2°24, 46, 103, 206, 273;
€¢c), but this is an inadequate description of the term. The Qur'an uses khowf far more tre:
quently to convey the meaning Year”

6. The idea was certainly not alien to the classical scholars of lam as is evident from the fol
lowing comment on levels of zakah (socal tax) by Abu Hamid al-Ghazzalt (4.1111): "The first
level (of zokah] is that of those who have grasped the true meaning of towhid, fuliled their
agreement and surrendered all their wealth. They neither keep a gold coin nor a silver one
and never reach the level on which zakah has to be paid’ (cited in Ahmad 1979. p. 94).

7. In apartheid South Africa there were two parallel spore systems which were administered
separately and frequented by dflerent sets of spectators. Racial sport was supported by the
overnment, organized along racial ines and played by people who argued that politics should
‘not be allowed to interfere with sports. Nor-racial sport was premised on the slogan ‘No
normal sport in an abnormal society’, All those connected to non-racial spore disciplines
avoided any associavon. as players or spectators, with any event organized by the govern-
ment-supported groups

This does not erply a dena of ferences between people. On the contrary. the qu'anic view
‘of hurrankind accepts the diversity of tribes and culture. i, however rejects the nation that these
‘an be a legitmate criteria for supenionty of any lind. Ths Swersty i. fact. a challenge to draw
closer to each other (:13) and to appreciate the Other as another marfestason of God's pres-
‘ence and His grace (20:22)

9. The qur‘anic expressions are ‘min sata! k‘Ffaththa’(SS:14) and min sol min homota mos
‘un’ (15:26) which translace as "sounding clay, like porary’ (Asad 1980, p. 825) and ‘sounding
clay, out of dark slime, transmuted’ (td, p. 385), respectively

10, See Quran 2277-81; 9:71; 314-5. Even the formal rituals of worship which are normally
regarded as entirely ‘vertically oriented are permeated with the factor af aknas and thus
assume a horizontal’ dimension. Examples of these are the emphasis on the performance of
prayers in congregation (2:43), the social dimensions inherent in haij (the pilgrimage to
Mecca) (2:197-200), the prophetic warning that there are many people who fast but derive

Hermeneutical Keys

nothing from4c except hunger (le. ¥e does not teach them compassion) (Ibn Maja 1979, 1, ps
549) and the linking of zakah (social tax) with the obligations to God (2:277; 9:60, 18;
23-4),

1, See Qur'an 2:245; 5:12; 6:17; S61: S76: 6417: 7320, The close relationship between
obligations to God and those to otnor 1 vividly ilustrated in the response to allegatons of
injustice against "Umar al-Khattab (4. 644). the second Caliph, in the case of a piece of
sequestered land at Rabdhah (Nait-Belkacem 1978, p. 145). ‘Umar vequestered the land and
set i aside to serve as general pasture land to be shared by all the citzens. The owners of
this land came to him complaining that i belonged to them ‘We have fought for i during
|ohiyyah [pre-Islamic ignorance]. it belonged to us even when we entered Islam. Why then
have you sequestered it” "Umar replied, ’Al goods belong to God abot are the creation of
God. IF | were not obliged to do certain things to remain in the path of God, I would not
have sequestered a single span of land’ (bid)

12, The period 1986-7, in fact. saw an aborove artempt to introduce 2 Muslim fundamentalist
‘version of the popular political slogan, Amandla ngowethu (Power & Ours) The short-lived
akernatve was Amiondialilah (Power for God). The idea that popular sovereignty it a hereti-
cal alternative to divine sovereignty has been 2 consistent dheme in fundamentalist writings
Which enjoyed considerable popularity in South Africa in the late 1970s and early 1980s,

13, The inevitable link becween making political dauns on behalf of God and tyranny was rec~
‘ognized during the early days of Islam by Abu Dhar (¢. 653), a Companion, in an encounter
with Mu'awiyah, The latter insisted on expropriating community property in the name of
God. (Al property belongs to Gor, was Mu'awiyah's argument) Abu Dharr responded say-
Ing "You say this in order to draw the conchision that since you are the represencacve of
God, all property belongs to you. You ought to say that alt property belongs 10 the people’
(Nalc-Belkacem 1978p. 145)

14, The notion of ofmaalahah ob'ammah (the common good) or olmasokt olanursalah (public
Incerest) a8 juristic principle, even a source of law, akhhough not undisputed, has for long
bbeen operative in Islamic jurisprudence However. i determination has essentally been con-
fined to the jurists and clerics

15, Verse 10 of this passage (And the earch He has spread out forall ving things’) ix more
specific n focusing on the ecorystem and on social patie. The earth thus belongs to all who
Iinhabie i not only humankind, and humankind, as the vicegerent of God upon it. have a
‘responsibility to be justin their dealings with alls co-inhabveants

16, The post-Mawardh-Sunni theory of state saw stabiity elevated to a religous principle
‘Any disruption to that stablity, irrespective of its undertying values. was regarded as fnoh,
which was invarably equated with mischief. This por-Mawardan negauve attinude towards
rebellion though, as Ayalon points out was itself a departure fromm a still earlier concept.
commending the removal of an impious ruler by force 'No obedience to a creature in dis-
‘obeying the Creator’, ran an oft-quoted hadith (nd. p. 146).

REDEFINING SELF
& OTHER

Iman, Istam & Kur

The munafiks [hypocrives] in our town who jot make all the trouble... want 19
change our deen [religion] and say Muslims must go to the townships and help the
black koeftaar and to cell our children to fight and make trouble agenat [uc] the ov
cermment ,.. Whe have we Muslims to do with all these things. Let us leave ehis

tics and other business co the koetfar
ws rt fonget our iebaacaat [rituals] works and we will take the angira [hereafter

(Letter to Editor, Muslim Views, Qetaber 1991)

The Ever-Decreasing Chosen and the
Ever-Increasing Frozen

Ales of exclusion and inclusion seem to be intrinsic to all religions
and are usually ethically loaded. The two most frequently invoked
ethical terms in the Qur'an are undoubtedly iman and Aufr (usually loose-
ly translated as “faith” and ‘disbelief. In Muslim discourse though, iman
has largely been substituted by islam as the key term for self-identifica~
tion. The word islam, for example, occurs only eight times in the Qur'an
whereas iman is found forty-five times, Similarly, the correlative of iman,
‘mu’min, in its various forms, appears more than five times as frequently
as muslim. This development is itself significant for any discussion of the
Other in Islam.

One of the manifestations (and consequences) of the process of
Islamic theology becoming more and more rigid was the reification of

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Redefining Self & Orher

terms such as islam, iman and Rufr. In other words, these words are no
longer seen as qualities that individuals may have; qualities that are
dynamic and vary in intensity in different stages of an individual’s life.
Instead, these terms are now regarded as the entrenched qualities of
groups, bordering on ethnic characteristics. The way these terms are
employed in the Qur'an and, to a lesser extent, in exegetical literature,
shows that the relationship between the earliest meanings of these terms
and their present-day usage is rather frayed. While some aspects of their
contemporary usage are obviously rooted in their early meanings, there
are other aspects that have been ignored entirely. Any notion of ‘actual’
or ‘true’ meaning is of course problematic, because we can only approach
the question from our horizons. There is, nevertheless, a case for reflect-
ing upon the way words were used by the first authors or speakers and by
those who read, listened to or interpreted a text.

In looking at the way these terms were used in the Qur'an, one
should not avoid qur'anic texts that appear to encourage religious exclu-
sivism, Some texts that have been selected for reflections on the key
terms in this chapter and on selected themes in the next thus represent
the ‘difficult texts’ in Muslim pluralist discourse, texts that are often
bypassed by Muslim apologists and those engaged in interfaith dia-
Jogue. A simultaneous commitment to both the text and to interreli-
gious solidarity necessarily requires a transcendence of what Riffat
Hassan has described as an ‘inauthentic dialogue based on abbrevia-
tions’ (1986, p, 132), These texts are, in fact, very significant for a
qur'anic discourse of pluralism that also seeks to advance people's lib
eration from racial discrimination and other forms of oppression. Many
of the advocates of religious pluralism for liberation and justice desire to
live alongside the Qur'an with integrity and simultaneously participate in
authentic relationships with those of other faiths. Rediscovering and reap-
propriating the subsumed meanings of these terms, rather than avoiding
them, are prerequisites for this authenticity.

Underpinning my examination of these terms is the belief that the
Qur'an is concemed, and presents God as being ‘concerned with some-
thing that persons do, and with the persons who do it, rather than with
an abstract entity (called betief]’ (Cantwell-Smith 1991, p. 111). Those
who have suffered the consequences of the herrenvolkism of another peo-
ple have no alternative but to search for more inclusive categories. Where
these theological categories are also seen as divinely ordained, one has to
find alternative ways of reading them. Thus, muslim, and all its positive
connotations, for both this world and the hereafter, cannot merely refer

Qurtan, Liber

& Plaralism

to the biological accident of being born in a Muslim family. Similarly,
Aafir cannot refer to the accident of being born outside such a family.

In view of the significance of the exegetical tradition outlined in
chapter 2, I shall regularly refer to the work of selected exegetes who
represent some of the broad streams in qur’anic exegesis and Islamic
theology. These include the traditional (Ibn Jarir al-Tabari, d. 923);
scholastic, both Mu'tazilite and Ash‘arite (Mahmud ibn ‘Umar al-
Zamakhshari, d, 1144, and Fakhr al-Din al-Razi, d. 1209); the esoteric
tradition (Muhyi al-Din ibn al-'Arabi, d. 1240), as well as some more
contemporary exegetes, both Sunni (Rashid Rida, d. 1935) and Shi'ite
(Muhammad Hussain al-Tabataba’i, d. 1981). A perusal of their views
has the value of connecting my own insights with those of tradition.
Furthermore, I shall show that their interpretations can often serve as a
basis for developing notions of particular relevance to those who live in
divided and unjust societies.

‘The idea that the qur’anic islam is not the sole possession of Muslims
who identify with the historical wmmah (community) of Islam has found
an echo in numerous works by Muslim scholars. This acknowledgement
of the potential of others outside the house of reified Islam to respond to
God, and the challenge of submitting to Him (i.¢., islam) in their own
ways, is more widespread than is commonly supposed.’ In various ways,
numerous Muslim scholars have acknowledged that

primordial and universal iilam, ie., the attitude of surrender to the
Absolute in co-fraternity, can be discerningly discovered and
acknowledged in the most varied symbols and patterns of belief and
action, in the religions and ideologies of the past and present . .. Any
sincere response to the call from the hidden Mystery, the source of
existence, realizes existential and personal islam. (Troll 1987, p. 15)

A careful study of iman, islam and kufr, and their usage in both the
Qur'an and its exegesis, bears out this position, There is, however, a need
to transcend the liberal discourse advocating some form of religious plu-
ralism in most of the works by Muslim modernists. ‘This discourse often
ignores the position of the Qur'an on kufr because the Qur'an denounces,
rejects and asks Mustims to oppose the Other or aspects of Otherness; all
notions that liberalism has difficulty dealing with. A hermeneutic of plu-
ralism for liberation does not seek to ignore this denunciation but to
redefine it. ‘Therefore, an attempt is made to deal with the ideological
connotations acquired by these terms and to present a conscious prefer-
ence for a new meaning, which seeks the liberation of all people.

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fining Self & Other

: Rethinking Iman

‘This following text seems to be useful for examining the way in which the
Qur'an uses the term iman and its noun, mu'minun,

Indeed, the mu’minun are those whose hearts tremble with awe
whenever God is mentioned; and whose iman is strengthened when-
ever His ayat [signs] are conveyed unto them; and who place their
trust in their Sustainer. Those who are constant in prayer and spend
on others out of what We provide for them as sustenance, It is they
who are truly the mu mimun . . . (Qur'an 8:24)

‘This text is the most explicit in defining a mu'min. While the word
‘mu'min here is widely interpreted to mean ‘a complete mu'min’, the very
idea of completeness or incompleteness in man highlights the dynamism
in the concept, a dynamism further underlined in the idea of man being
increased or strengthened. The text also lends itself to reflections on the
nature of the relationship between iman and righteous deeds, a relation
ship which is central to this study. Lastly, this text succinctly embraces
the various requirements of imam dealt with in greater detail elsewhere in
the Qur'an. As for the background of this text, it features in the begin-
ning of a Medinan chapter titled “The Spoils of War’ (Qur’an 8) which
deals largely with the events surrounding the Battle of Badr (623) and the
sanctity of treaties. Appearing at the beginning of the chapter, this text is
widely regarded as a rebuke to some of Muhsmmad’s Companions who
displayed an exaggerated interest in the spoils accrued from that battle,
‘This unseemly interest resulted in considerable acrimony. After being
told that such spoils rightfully belonged to the community as a whole,
and that eagerness for material wealth should not be allowed to impair
thelr social relations, the Companions were now reminded about the
nature of faith, faith which was being injured by their greed.’

As is the case with most key religio-ethical terms in the Qur'an, iman
is seldom discussed, even by lexicographers, solely with regard to its ety-
mological roots, Instead, there is frequent reference to its use in the
Qur'an and in Istamic theology. Jman is the verbal noun of the fourth
form from the root a-m-n. The root suggests ‘being secure’, ‘trusting in’,
‘turning to’, from which follows its meanings of ‘good faith’, ‘sincerity’,
and ‘fidelity’ or ‘loyalty’. The fourth form (amana) has the double mean-
ing of “to believe” and ‘to give one’s faith’. Its primary meaning is
“becoming true to the trust with respect to which God has confided in
one by a firm believing with the heart; not by profession of belief with the

Qurtus, Liberation & Pluralism

tongue only’ (Lane 1980, 1, p. 7). When a-m-n is followed by the particle
bi, it means ‘to acknowledge’ or ‘to recognize’. It is also used in the
meaning of ‘trust’ in the sense that one feels secure upon trusting some-
thing (al-Baidawi n.d., 1, p. 43).

‘The term, or variations thereof, appears approximately 244 times in
the Qur'an. Most frequently recurring is the expression ‘O those who
have iman’ of which there are 55 instances. While the term is used essen-
tially with reference to the followers of Muhammad, in 11 instances it
refers to Moses and his followers and in 22 instances to other prophets
and their followers. It is used in the Qur'an in the sense of being at peace
with oneself and in the sense of contentment (16:112). In 4:83 and 2:125
it means ‘security from external threats’, while 2:283 employs the term in
the sense of “depositing something with someone for safekeeping’. Quran
33:72 employs it in the sense of ‘a trust’, In its fourth form (amana), the
verb is usually followed by the particle bi and then means ‘to have faith
in’, ‘to recognize’, ‘to trust’. The object of this ‘having faith’ or ‘recogni-
tion’ can be God, (2:177; 4:38); the Qur'an specifically, or revelation in
general (2:4; 2:177; 4:136); Muhammad or prophets in general (2:177)
and, particularly, the Last Day (2:4; 4:38; 6:93). Occasionally the verb is
used in its fourth form without any preposition or object (3:110; 6:48).
Given the context of these verses, one may assume that the object was
understood. Its use in this form connects the meaning of both security
and faith with the implicit idea that those who have faith will attain peace
and security. One can say that, according to the Qur'an, ‘iman is an act
of the heart, a decisive giving oneself up to God and His message and
gaining peace and security and fortification against tribulation* (Rahman
1983, p, 171).

‘Three interconnected themes may be discerned from Qur'an 8:24,
the text selected for discussion here (see p. 117): the dynamic nature of
man, the interrelatedness of iman and righteous deeds and imam as a per
sonal response to God,

‘There are very many definitions of iman in Islamic theology.
Depending on their definition various theologians have either rejected (in
most known cases) or accepted the idea of aman as dynamic and able to
increase or decrease. Iman has variously been defined as one or more of
the following: affirmation, verbal testimony, belief or righteous conduct,
‘Those who defined imam as the collective of belief, affirmation and right-
ous conduct have, on the basis of the text under discussion, argued that,
given that iman can increase, it must mean something more than recogni-
tion (ma‘rifah) and verbal testimony (igrar). They have, furthermore,

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Redefining Self & Other

argued that the expression in the above text “these are truly the mu'min-
un? means that qualities required are inherent in what is called iman (al-
Razi 1990, 15, p. 124).

‘Most of the interpreters argue that in the statement ‘it increases their
iman’, itis the affirmation and contentment aspects of iman that increase,
rather than iman itself. Al-Tabari says: “To their affirmation attained hith-
erto is added more affirmation’ (1954, 9, p. 179), while al-Zamakhshati
says that the increase is ‘in conviction and satisfaction in the soul’ (n.d.,
2, p. 196). In a more detailed elaboration of this text, al-Razi (1990, 15,
. 124) offers three explanations for interpreting the increase as one in
certitude, affirmation and awareness (rather than in iman itself): 1) more
and stronger proof leads to further removal of doubt and, at the same
time, increase in certainty; 2) the greater amount known, the more the
affirmation and 3) an increase in iman means an increase in the awareness
of ‘the greatness of God's power and wisdom’ (ibid.). The reasoning fol-
lowed by al-Razi and others in all three explanations ignores the idea of
iman, a vibrant faith in the presence of God, being increased either as a
direct consequence of righteous conduct or as coming from the grace of
God subsequent to it; an idea explicit in the other texts dealing with
increase in iman (Qur'an 3:173; 8:25 9:124; 33:22; 48:04; 74:31).

thn ‘Arabi, al-Tabataba’i and Rida, in different ways, accept the idea
of iman itself increasing. Ibn "Arabi speaks of this increase as ‘a progres-
sion from the stage of knowledge to that of certainty’ (n.d., 1, p. 252).
While Rida interprets the increase in imam as ‘(greater) certainty in
obedience, strength in contentment, abundance in recognition’ (1980,
9, p. 591), he is, nevertheless, categorical that these qualities belong to
iman: “The truth is that the iman of the heart itself increases and decreas-
es" (ibid.). Al-Tabataba’i echoes this in his explanation of this phrase:
“The light of iman radiates gradually upon the heart and this continues in
intensity until it reaches perfection . . . nan then continues to increase,
and grows firm until it reaches the stage of certitude’ (1973, 9, p. 11).

‘The distinction made by some interpreters, between iman and its
supposed accompaniments such as certitude, affirmation, fear/awe and
contentment, is more suited to the debates of scholasticism than to the
personal quest for God. However, despite the reluctance of some to
acknowledge that iman itself is dynamic, all agree that the various com-
ponents of, or adjuncts to, iman increase or decrease. (The unusual
logic employed to avoid the inevitable conclusion, from a qur‘anic per-
spective, that iman itself is subject to increase or decrease is seen in the
second article of the Wasiyyar Abi Hanifah, the last admonition of

119

Liberation & Pluralism

‘Abu Hanifah (4.767) to his followers, containing a synopsis of his theol-
ogy: ‘Iman cannot grow or decrease. In fact, its weakening can be con-
ceived only in connection with an increase of kufr and its progress in con-
nection with a weakening of kufr’ (EI, ‘iman’). This position actually
implies the possibility of one simultaneously being both a believer and a
‘non-believer’.)

‘The most significant issue is that imam is a personal recognition of,
and active response to, the presence of God in the universe and in his-
tory. The personal and active nature of imam must imply that it fluctu-
ates and that it is dynamic, Several of the exegetes mention two hadiths
narrated by al-Bukhari and Muslim: "The least of iman will save one in
the hereafter’ and ‘Iman is of [various] kinds and has seventy branches.
‘The highest is the testimony that there is no deity except God and the
Jowest is the removal of an obstacle from the road. And [even] modesty
isa branch of faith’ (al-Zamakhshari n.d., 2, p. 196; a-Razi 1990, 15,
P. 124). Even if, as some theologians have argued, the original source
of iman may be divine grace, it still relates to the deepest senses of
human beings, human beings who are in different degrees being trans-
formed with every social or personal encounter.

‘The Qur'an recognizes various levels of iman. This text speaks of the
‘mu’minuna haggan', which most of the interpreters have interpreted as
‘perfect mu'minun’. The vast majority of Muslims do not fulfil the criteria
outlined in the Qur'an 8:24, and yet are mot excluded from the ranks of
mu'minun. An account which deals specifically with this text and which is
explicit about two levels of iman is that involving Hassan al-Basri (4. 728).
Asked if he was a mu'min, he responded by saying: ‘Iman is of two kind:
if you asked me about iman in God, the Angels, His Books, His Prophers,
the Last Day, Paradise and the Fire, the Resurrection and the Judgement,
then I am a mu'min. If, however, you were to ask me about the word of
God “innama't-mu'minuna™ Then, by God! I do not know" (al-Razi 1990,
15, p. 126; al-Zamakhshari n.d., 2, p. 196). This is itself proof that the
reality of levels of iman is more widely accepted than the notion of a stable
and immutable imam would suggest. Increase in faith is established by the
text of this verse and by several other qur'anic texts, explicitly 3:17.
9:124; 33:22; 48:45 74:31 and implicitly 47:175 17:13; 19:76.

We may summarize the three major reasons for arguing that iman is
dynamic and mutable. Firstly, however iman is defined, we observe that
iman is also acknowledged by the Qur'an and the early Muslims 10 be of
more than one kind and existing at various levels. Secondly, whenever
the Qur'an addresses the early followers of Islam as ‘O you who have

120

Redefining Self & Other

attained unto iman’, it urges them tw remould themselves in a particular
direction, to orient themselves away from the various wrongs in society
and towards God. They were required to act in a certain manner rather
than to claim ownership of a particular substance termed iman. Thirdly,
the understanding that imam, too, is an active attribute of character is also
supported by the fact of its opposite, which is Aufr, As I shall indicate,
‘the context of the term “they rejected” (kuft) show that according to the
Qur'an, to “disbelieve” is an active attitude to life as a whole... the
opposite of iman is an active attribute of character, the attitude of heed-
Jessness and scom and pride’ (Izutsu 1966, p. 119-20).

After defining a muc'min in terms of 1) the essentially spiritual/person-
al, (their ‘hearts tremble with awe when God is mentioned’); 2) the reli-
gious (‘they are constant in prayer’) and 3) the socio-economic (‘spend
on others out of what [God] provide[s] for them as sustenance’), Qur'an
8:2-4 goes on to describe the possessors of these characteristics as ‘the
truly faithful’ or ‘the true believers’. If these are ‘the truly faithful’, then
the question arises as to whether there is another category of ‘merely
faithful’? Are these characteristics part and parcel of what is called iman
or are they outside it? If the latter, then what is the relationship between
these characteristics and iman?

‘These questions assumed tremendous importance in the discipline of
scholastic theology (kalam) and were debated with much acrimony, The
views of the various interpreters also differ and, in the case of al-
Zamakhshari and al-Razi, they closely correspond to that of the schools
with which they identified. Al-Tabari does not express himself explicitly
on this issue. However, he does suggest that there is a binding connection
between iman and righteous deeds. ‘A mu'min is one’, he says, ‘whose
heart trembles at the mention of God, obeys His orders, submits to His
remembrance in fear of Him and His punishment’ (1954, 9, p. 178).
While al-Zamakhshari says that these characteristics are required for ‘per-
fect iman’, he links the increase in iman to possessing greater truths and
an increase in righteous deeds (n.d. 2, p. 196). Al-Razi is even more
explicit about the relationship between imam and the characteristics men-
tioned in this text, Referring to the preceding verse (‘Obey God and His
Prophet if you are mu’min’), he says that ‘iman has to result in obedi-
ence’ (1990, 15, p. 121) and that the verse under discussion is a com-
mentary of the verse preceding it. ‘Iman’, he says, “is not attained until
this obedience is attained and this is only accomplished when the five
characteristics are fulfilled’ (ibid.),

Ibn ‘Arabi avoids the scholastic discourse on the relationship

121

Qur'an. Liberation & Plura!

between iman and righteous deeds. Yet one gets a clear sense that, for
him, iman is intrinsically connected to the pursuit of ever-deepening
faith. We have seen how he has interpreted increase in iman as progress-
ing from mere rational acknowledgement of the presence of God, to the
stage of certainty, Furthermore, the care to be devoted to the quality and
presence of heart which must characterize one’s worship as an extension
of iman is also clear in his interpretation of this text (n.d., 1, p. 252).
After defining iman as ‘all the knowledge, belief and required action’,
Rida (1980, 9, p. 590) repeats hadith in al-Bukhari and Muslim that
‘the least of faith will save one in the hereafter’ and another stating that
iman has seventy branches as ‘clear testimony’ of this definition (ibid.).
‘The insistence on viewing righteous deeds as an intrinsic part of iman
is well founded in the Qur'an, where the phrase ‘those who have iman
and who do righteous deeds’ occurs no less than thirty-six times. What is
evident is that iman is intrinsically connected to righteous deeds whether
they are part and parcel of iman or as a necessary consequence of it. ‘The
separation of faith from action’, as Rahman says. ‘is, for the Qur'an, a
totally untenable and absurd siruation’ (Rahman 1983, p. 171). Perhaps
the best elaboration of this relationship is offered by Izutsu. ‘The
strongest tie of semantic relationship binds salih (righteousness) and iman
together into an almost inseparable unit. Just as the shadow follows the
form, wherever there is iman there is salihat (righteous deeds} . . . 30
much so that we may feel justified in defining the former in terms of the
latter and the latter expressed in terms of the former’ (1966, p. 204).
1c is important to note that, whatever the differences in the relation-
ship between imam and righteous deeds, traditional scholarship has usually
interpreted these in a very narrow sense, i.e., as the rituals of reified Islam,
While iman is often connected to the rituals, as in Qur'an 8: 2-4, this is
‘not always the case. There are numerous other examples where the refer
ence is to iman and righteous conduct in a general and unspecified sense.”
Furthermore, the Qur'an is quite categorical about the smallest act of
righteousness being rewarded, without insisting on iman as a condition.’
This discussion of the relationship between iman and righteous deeds
brings us to several significant issues: 1) the status of those who have
iman in the sense of affirmation but whose lives are bereft of ‘righteous
conduct’, even if the latter is interpreted as the rituals of reified Islam; 2)
the worth of righteous conduct unaccompanied by iman in the sense of
affirmation or assent as elaborated in Islamic theology and 3) the possibil-
ity of imax unaccompanied by assent, as elaborated in Islamic theology,
‘These questions were of particular relevance to Muslims in South

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Self & Other

Africa during the 1980s. Among the engaged Muslims there was utter
disdain for the members of the community who identified with the
apartheid regime and a deep sense of shame that they continued to
regard themselves as members of the ‘believing community’. While a
hadith ‘whosoever walks with the oppressor has gone forth from Islam”
was widely invoked, these activists stopped short of denying that the col-
laborators were ‘believers’. Instead, the more ambiguous expression of
‘politically apostate’ was used and the word ‘Muslim’ was placed in
inverted commas when referring to them.

In stark contrast to the behaviour of the collaborationist Muslims, the
country saw young Jews and Christians going to jail because of their
refusal to serve in the apartheid army. Similarly, numerous deeply com-
mitted Christians, both clergy and laity, preferred corture and incarcera-
tion as the price of a deeply held conviction that faith in God implied an
undying commitment to the dignity and freedom of His people, How
could the faith of the former be affirmed and that of the latter denied if
‘one earnestly believed that one’s God was a just God who was ‘the Lord
and Sustainer of the people’? The question of the faith and the righteous~
ness of the Other thus assumed an urgency and intimacy that escaped all
of those uninvolved in the struggle. Such an urgency and intimacy ws
all probability, alien to medieval theologians who lived in Muslim majority
Jands and who often functioned under the benign patronage of the ruler.

Having sketched something of the background to these seemingly
theological questions, one can now discuss them, While the first ques-
tion, the iman status of the unrighteous, is not the most pertinent in
terms of the overall subject of this study, it is useful for throwing light on
the second and third.

In the Qur'an, in exegetical literature and in general Muslim dis-
course, the word man is used in several different ways: 1) as the act of
assenting to the existence of God, the ultimate accountability to Him and
to the prophethood of Muhammad; 2) for belonging to the religious
community of Islam irrespective of the actual faith commitment or the
lack of any such commitment and 3) as an ongoing struggle to concretize
faith in God in one’s personal and social conduct, As for the first sense,
al-Razi has argued succinctly that iman is affirmation because this is what
it means in the Arabic language (1990, 1, p. 29). After such affirmation
‘one becomes a member of the community of believers, i., the second
sense. That there were various levels of actualizing that affirmation
among different parts of the community and individuals is clear from
the Qur’an, which at times refers to the believers as an established

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socio-religious community. For example, Qur'an 6:82 speaks about
“those who have iman and do not mix their iman with injustice’ while
49:9 refers to a group among the mu’minun acting wrongfully.

‘Abd al-Ra’uf (1967) has focused on the meaning of mu’min as
derived from amm (‘to become secure’ or ‘to render security’), and has
argued the case for a sociological appreciation of iman. “Fear of insecuri-
ty’, he argues, ‘was the major stumbling block against the faith in the
early days’. He suggests that ‘an obvious substirute [for tribal security]
was the formation of a social organization in the framework of the tribe,
in which the members of the group were to be as closely knit together in
4 common bond other than the blood tie (1967, p. 98). While mu’minun
undoubtedly referred to a sociological group, it is, nevertheless, doubtful
if the mere naming of a group as ‘the secured’, as “Abd al-Ra’uf suggests,
would have had sufficient effect to allay the insecurity of potential con-
verts, Secondly, the term ‘those who have iman’ was already used in
‘Mecca, albeit infrequently, at a period when the Muslims were socially at
their most vulnerable and insecure. Whatever the weakness in ‘Abd al-
Ra’uf’s arguments, it is clear that, as a group, some people were
described as mu'minun even when the actions of all the individuals there-
in did not accord with their faith commitments.

In Muslim society, being born in Muslim household has always, in
practice, been sufficient cause for inclusion among the mu ‘minun on con-
dition that one never verbally rejects that heritage. This means that even
the act of ‘affirmation with the tongue’ is, in practice, dispensed with, for
there is no formal mechanism for testing the faith commitment of an
individual when he or she reaches the age of moral responsibility. It is
clear that mu’min also meant, and continues to mean, someone with an
essentially socio-religious, rather than personal, faith commitment
(expressed in the rituals of Islam or in one’s general demeanour). It
would, therefore, be an extraordinary, unjust act of chauvinism to deny
the legitimacy of imam as faith in a God who is utterly beyond human
conceptions and a faith which is expressed in a life totally in conformity
with the ethos of the Qur'an and its emphasis on righteousness.

‘That there were mu'minun in the non-sociological sense of the word,
i.e., outside the Muhammadan community, is clear and generally
acknowledged. This acknowledgement, though, is confined by conserva-
tive Islam to the prophets and their followers who preceded Muhammad,
As will be indicated in the following chapter, the Qur'an itself is explicit
about the iman of the People of the Book. On several occasions it
employs the term for those who coexist with the community of

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Self & Other

Muhammad, but are not a part of it. It furthermore affirms the validity of
all righteousness as acts or behaviour which result in God's grace.

In addition to Qur'an 8:2-4, a number of other texts that relate iman
to the heart support the view that, in addition to the socio-religious under-
standing of iman, itis also, perhaps even primarily, a matter of deep inner
and personal conviction (¢.g., 16:106; 49:7-8; 58:22). In at least one case
the Qur'an is explicit about withholding the description mu'min from
those who have formally joined the community of Muslims (49:14-15).
Here some Bedouin were told that the act of formally entering into the
community of Islam was distinct from iman. Islam, in the sense of for-
mally submitting to the new order brought about by Muhammad, was
merely the beginning of a faith that still had to acquire roots in their
hearts.’ The implication of this passage might have been that joining the
community of Muslims did not necessarily reflect # personal faith. In this
sense ‘faith’ and ‘conviction’, rather than ‘belief’, are more accurate ren-
derings of iman. Cantwell-Smith bas pointed out that "belief" is a deriv-
ative and can be an exceedingly watered down and inoperative matter,
compared with the richness and warmth and the engagement of “faith"*
(1991, p. 111). We have seen that the Qur'an acknowledges a diluted
form of iman. When a whole tribe converted to Islam by way of a treaty
with Muhammad, we must understand this treaty in terms of
Arab-Bedouin cultural practices. Therefore, this practice may not have
meant the same thing for all members of the tribe and the name
‘Muslim’ could well have been a new identity of treaty rather than of faith.
This could also help to explain the seemingly opposite use of iman in the
following qur’anic passage: ‘O those who have iman, have iman* (4:126),
In the Qur'an, the most significant sense is the second one, i.e,, ‘an active
quality, one that commits the person and by which he (or she} is caught
up into a dynamic relationship with his {or her] Maker and his {or her} fel-
lows. It is the ability to see the transcendent, and to respond to it; to hear
God's voice and to act accordingly* (Cantwell-Smith 1991, p. 112)

Given that iman is also a deeply personal response to God, it cannot
be confined to a particular socio-religious community. Such attempts
would be a denial of the universality of God Himself. This is why the
Qur'an is explicit about the imay of those outside the socio-religious
community of mu'minun. If iman can embrace the removal of a banana
peel from the road, how can it not embrace the lifelong response of an
individual to the voice of God as he or she perceives it and manifests it in
an abiding life of service to those with whom God himself has chosen to
identify, the oppressed and marginalized?

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Redefining Islam: From a Noun to a Verb

The following text, particularly the first sentence, is an important one in
‘Muslim claims that the only expression of religiosity acceptable to God
since the prophethood of Muhammad is Islam, the religion institutional-
ized by Muhammad. Furthermore, most interpreters have used this
opportunity to define and elaborate on the meaning of islam.

Behold, the din with God is islam; and those who were vouchsafed
the scripture aforerime, out of mutual jealousy, differed only after
knowledge had come unto them. But as for the one who rejects/is
ungrateful (vakfur) for the signs of God, behold God is swift in reck-
‘oning. (Qur'an 3:19)

‘The entire third chapter of the Qur'an, “The Family of Imran’, wherein
this text appears, is Medinan. Ir follows on from “The Cow’ and, similar-
ly, deals at length with the People of the Book. In “The Family of Imran’
though, far more attention is devoted to the Christians and to attempts
by the opponents of Islam to wipe it out from its stronghold, Medina.

‘The selected text is preceded by one whereby God, the angels and
‘people of knowledge” bear testimony to God's unity and thereby uphold
justice. While the text’s use of the word islam, based on the root s-/-nt,
‘may be interpreted here to refer to a reified conception of Islam, the pre-
ceding verse uses it in an unambiguously personalist manner, ‘The text is
followed by an instruction to Muhammad to tell his opponents that his
path is simply one of submitting his being/attention to God and that this
i also the path required of them.

‘This is one of several verses in the Qur'an which refers to islam as the
only din acceptable to God. In other verses islam is described as God's
choice for the community of Muhammad and the completion of His
favour upon it (5:3). Those whose "breasts had been opened to islam’ are
described as ‘following a light from his [her] Lord’ (39:22). The intensi-
fying particle ‘inna’ in the text under discussion is usually seen as affirm-
ing the singularity of islam as the acceptable din to God. This view is
seemingly corroborated by another text in the same chapter: ‘Do they
seek, perchance a din other than God? [Although] it is unto Him that
whatsoever is in the heavens and on earth surrenders (aslama) willingly or
unwillingly, since unto Him all must retum . . .. And unto Him/for Him
‘we are muslimun, For whoever goes in search of a din other than islam, it
will never be accepted from him for her], and in the life to come he [or
she] shall be among the lost’ (3:83-5).

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] Redefining Self & Other

‘An examination of the terms din and, more especially, islam, is obvi-
ously central to an understanding of these verses and of the question of
Islam and religious exclusivism or pluralism. I shall briefly mention the
views of some of the interpreters regarding these terms in this text, before
discussing these within the context of a process of reification. This
process has eroded the more pluralist understanding of the term islam
and supplanted it with a rigid and formal religious system.

ALTabari ‘Verily the din with God is al-islam, which is simul-
taneously the way of viewing as well as responding to “reality”.
‘Today the islam which is acceptable to God is that embodied in
the Qur'an’ (1954, 3, p. 212). As Smith has pointed out, islam for
al-Tabari, on ‘one level implies both the act of joining the group of
‘Muslims/muslims and the name of that group, and, on another
level . . . personal surrender of the heart’ (Smith 1975, p. 219).

Ton ‘Arabi “Verily the true din with God is this rawhid which
He has prescribed for Himself. His din is, therefore, the din of the
submission of one’s entire being . . . {to be a Muslim means that I
have] severed myself from my ego and achieved annihilation in
Him’ (n.d., 1, p. 105),

Al-Zamakhshari “The [preceding] starement “there is no deity
save Him” is rawhid while “upholding justice” is equity if this is
followed by “verily the din by God is islam” then it implies that
the meaning of islam is equity and sawhid. This is the religion
according to God; all else is not din’ (n.d. 1, p. 245),

Al-Razi ‘From the linguistic origin of din as “recompense” din
has the meaning of obedience which is the cause of recompense,”

. ‘Islam has three meanings: entry into Islam i.e., into submis-
sion and obedience, entry into peace and purifying all service for
God’ (1990, 7, p. 220).

Rida According to God, al-din, the injunctions of God and the
response which the servants impose upon themselves, the authen-
tic islam, is the intensely personal submission of the individual to
God and the universal spirit in which all religious communities
partake . . . This submission bears no relationship to conventional
Islam which is trapped in imitation and in ethno-sociological com-
munities’ (1980, 3, p. 267).

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AL-Tabataba’i Islam is absolute submission to the truth of
belief and of action . . . This verse refers to dim in the meaning of a
single shani‘ah which does not differ from the previous shari‘ahs
except in the natural capacities of the various recipient communi-
ties’ (1973, 3, p, 121).

‘There are a number of studies dealing with the meaning of the word din
and its use in the Qur'an.” Most Muslim works, and all of the exegetical
works under discussion, deal with its meaning in a theological manner
while the task of a more linguistic analysis has essentially fallen to non-
Muslim critical scholarship. Both from traditional dictionaries (Ibn
‘Manzur, n.d., 2, p. 1467-70) and from the textual studies of scholars
such as Cantwell-Smith (1991, pp. 102 ff), one may conclude that the
word din in seventh-century Arabia had several different meanings which
may be classed in three principal groups: 1) the concept of systematic
religion; 2) the verbal noun, ‘judging’, “passing judgement’, ‘passing sen-
tence’; and, slong with this, ‘judgement’, ‘verdict’; 3) the verbal noun ‘to
conduct onesell, ‘to behave’, ‘to observe certain practices’, ‘to follow tra-
ditional usage” and, subsequently, abstract noun, ‘conformity’, ‘propri-
ety’, ‘obedience’, ‘customs’ and ‘standard behaviour".

‘Muslim scholarship has elaborated the meaning of din within the
context of interpreting iilam as din. Significantly, while most of the expla-
nations, in varying degrees, carry the implicit acceptance of din as form,
i.e, that it is and, indeed, ought to be, expressed within systematic and
institutionalized religious life, these explanations focus essentially on
process, on din as personal submission to God. None of the meanings of
the word given by the interpreters correspond to that of “institutional reli-
gion’, although some meanings may have such implications. While they
all recognize that, at one level, the din of islam was one among several rei-
fied religious systems, and, for all of them, the superior one, it is evident
that ‘this was not the primary reference for their understanding of islam
as din’ (Smith 1975, p. 229). Rida, however, defines din in a universal
manner which excludes mere formal identification with a socio-historical
Islam, while openty acknowledging the legitimacy of religious paths other
than reified Islam. According to Rida, this intensely personal submission
of the individual to God and the universal spirit, in which all religious
communities partake, bears no relationship to conventional Islam.

In 4 concise, but lucid study, Yvonne Haddad has elaborated on the
conception of the term as it appears in the various periods of the Quran's
revelation (1974). According to Haddad, there were four distinct periods

128

ng Self & Other

when the term was employed and, while the various periods saw changes
in the usage of the term, ‘the essence of the meaning . . . appears to have
remained constant’ (1974, p. 122). In the first and second Meccan peri-
ods, the term appears as a verbal noun and mostly with the word yawm
(day), as yawm al-din, (i.e, the Day of Requital). In the earliest chapters
of the Qur'an the emphasis is on humankind’s response to God, of either
denial or agreement. The manner in which denial or agreement is used in
the Qur'an though, makes it apparent that it bears little relation to a ver~
bal rejection of affirmation of din or yatom al-din, It is rather a denial of a
lifestyle of response or non-response to God and the idea of ultimate
accountability with which the Qur'an is concerned. In the third Meccan
period din seems to emphasize a personal commitment of the individual
1 God, However, Haddad has shown that in the last part of the Meccan
period, there is an identification of the unchanging din with the ‘commu-
nity of Abraham’ and ‘the straight path’. From then onwards the empha-
sis seems to be on a community of believers (1974, p. 119). This leads on
to the Medinan period when the emphasis on din as personal commit-
‘ment is switched to the use of the term for commitment in the collective
sense, For the first time the term ‘the true din’ is now used. ‘The one ‘true
response’, it was being promised, would be established above other
responses (cf. Qur’an 61:9).

Before proceeding to examine the concept of islam and islam as din,
‘one needs to highlight the following underlying issues. Firstly, the term
din was employed with various meanings within the Arabian peninsula
during the seventh century. It was inevitable that the Qur'an would use it
within the confines of those understandings. The absence of the plural
form, advan, is perhaps reflective of this, because religious life was not as
fully reified then. Secondly, the Qur'an is engaged in a dynamic relation-
ship with its hearers; it speaks and uses expressions in terms of the under~
standing of a community or individuals at a particular stage of their
development. Thus, dir is not employed in the communal sense in the
early Meccan context. Thirdly, to deny or to affirm din or yawm al-din
had little or nothing to do with verbal or theoretical affirmation or rejec~
tion, Affirmation or rejection related to a personal lifestyle of response to
God and a higher moral imperative or one of actively displaying con-
tempt for these, Fourthly, the present near universal understanding of din
as ‘religion’ and the corresponding virtual elimination of din as a personal
response to God is unfounded in the text of the Qur‘an, as well as in tra-
ditional exegesis,

Let us now consider the meaning of the word islam’ and the concept

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alism

of islam as din. The infinitive of aslama, islam means ‘to submit’, ‘to sur-
render’, ‘to fulfil or execute’, In the context of the expression ‘he entered
into al-silm’, idam is interpreted as the name of a religion. The term also
means ‘reconciliation’, ‘peace’ or ‘wholeness’, as Rida has demonstrated
(1980, 3, p. 257) and as a number of Muslim liberals and apologists for
Islam have stressed (Ameer Ali 1974, p. 137; Muhammad Ali 1990, p. 4).

‘Naming the din of truth “islam”’, Rida says, ‘corresponds to all
the linguistic meanings of the word, particularly “submission"* (1980,
3, p. 257). Asad’s rendition of islam as ‘(humankind’s) self-surrender
unto God’ (1980, p. 69) seemingly gathers within it the various interpreta-
tions of islam. As a verbal noun, the term appears only cight times in the
Qur'an whereas its foundation verb, aslama, appears twenty-four times. 1
agree with ‘Abd al-Ra’uf who suggests thar the relative infrequency of the
use of islam ‘is characteristic of the Qur'an which is less concerned with
words related to metaphysical and static thinking, than with words intrin-
sically related to active and dynamic conceptions’ (1967, p. 94).

‘The term islam, despite the infrequency with which it appears in the
Qur'an, is central to Muslim self-definition. That this term, rather than
iman which appears much more frequently, should be so pivotal, is itself
pregnant with questions about the transformation that the self-definition
of the community of Muhammad has undergone. It is with this in mind
that the meaning of islam is now considered,

Cantwell-Smith has traced the ‘reificationist conceptualization of
islam’ (1991, p. 108) and shown how the original meaning of words such
as islam and hufr in traditional peninsular Arabic and their early accep-
tance in Muslim conviction was ‘something much more vibrant searching
and transporting’ (ibid., p. 110). He has argued that, while it is clear thar
the words islam and din ‘could conjure up the idea of Islam as a reified
entity, one religion among others, this was by no means the only, and,
indeed, not even the primary, interpretation’ (ibid., p. 109). His argu-
ments have been adequately supported by the more systematic exegetical
research undertaken by Jane Smith (1975) into the definitive qur'anic
texts wherein the term appears.

Among the interpreters whose works are presently being reflected
upon, Rida stands alone in his explicit distinction between reified and
non-reified islam, He argues that the usage of al-islam to mean the doc~
trines, traditions and practices of those people who are known as
‘Muslims, is new, based on the phenomenological principle of ‘religion
being what its followers have’. This is al-din in the sense of an ethno-
sociological community (jinsiyy) or custom (“uz/) (1980, 3, p. 361). He

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Redefining Self & Other
‘argues that social and customary Islam, ‘which varies according to the
differences which have occurred to its adherents in the way of uncritical
acceptance, has no relationship with true islam’. ‘On the contrary’, he
writes, ‘it is subversive of true faith” (ibid.).

At a superficial glance, many of Rida’s arguments may be viewed as
modernist. The works of Cantwell-Smith and Smith, however, prove that
he is closer to the earliest interpretation of this text and of islam than con-
temporary Muslim conservatism may want to concede. A more detailed
Took at the conclusions reached by them bears this out. Firstly, the Qur’an
employs the term islam much less frequently than other related terms.
However, where it is employed, it is in a manner where it can be, ‘and on
many grounds almost must be, interpreted, not as the name of a religious
system, but as the designation of a decisive personal act’ (Cantwell-Smith
1991, p, 110). The Qur'an refers three times to islam in the context of dint
(3:19; 3:855 5:3). At a further two places the reference is implicitly per-
sonal (6:125; 39:22) and at two others explicitly so (49:17; 9:74). It is
thus hardly surprising that, particularly in early exegetical scholarship, the
verbal noun form was primarily interpreted as such. Secondly, the person-
alist interpretation is ‘in fact, closer to the straightforward and simple
meanings of the Arabic words’ and ‘historically, this was the interpreta-
tion given to these passages by many, if not most, of the Muslim religious
thought in the early centuries’ (Cantwell-Smith 1991, p. 113).

‘The systematic study of this subtle transformation was taken up by
‘Smith who has shown that there has been a ‘historical flow, involving
both movement and continuity, that takes us from what islam meant to
what it “has meant” and what it “means”’ (1975, p. 222-3). We are
dealing with a term the interpretation of which is ‘dynamic, both within
the understanding of individual writers and as expressed by the historical
development of the concept from one age to another’ (ibid.).
Furthermore, she shows that the interpretations of the term have devel-
oped along the following two axes of investigation. The first concems the
relation between the external and the intemal aspects of surrender, i.c.,
between islam as affirmation and islam as external conformity: there is
general agreement that, in the light of verses such as 3:83; 49:14 and oth-
cers, that while islam can be applied to an act that is purely external, it is
really only when that act is performed with the full inner acceptance and
affirmation of the one who submits, that it can be considered islam in the
full sense of the word (Smith 1975, p. 66).

‘The second interpretation concerns the individual and the group
aspects of islam. The ‘original meaning” of islam is located in a ‘fusion of

Qur'an, Liberation & Pluralism

the individual and group interpretations” (ibid., p. 228). Smith also notes
that ‘while it (islam) was once inclusive on the level of the relationship of
individual and group, there have been significant changes in the way
“islam” has been used, which are specifically related to time’. In the tradi-
tional commentaries islam is both individual submission and the name of
the group, but with the primary emphasis on the former, and with the
dual usage generally by implication. When interpreters failed to make a
distinction between the personal act of submission and the community of
‘Muhammad, then the reference was ‘always to the historical group of
Muslinun at the time of Muhammad rather than to the particular group
existing and fully organized at the time of the writing of each tafsir ([com-
mentary]’ (Smith 1975, p. 228).

In any study of the use of a single term it is easy to ignore the fact
that that term is actually lived out and understood within a set of explicit,
albeit unstated, ‘givens’. In this case, islam, in even the most personalist
interpretations offered by Rida, was also lived out as a set of injunctions
within the parameters of formalized shari‘ah. In the Qur'an itself, howev-
cr it is employed, it is within the context of numerous other texts dealing
with a developing religious community with its own laws and institutions.
More specifically, both from the context of numerous injunctions relating
to the socio-religious life of the community such as those relating to mar-
riage, divorce, diet, inheritance etc, and from the actual statement in
Qur'an 5:3, ‘This day have I perfected for you your din and completed my
favour unto you and chosen for you islam as a din’, the group and reified
sense is inescapable. Iam was also the designation given by God to the
path of iam that a particular community of Muslims were to follow.

‘The problem with the dominant contemporary Muslim discourse is
that it is based on the idea that islam is only reified Islam. Clearly, both
the personalist sense as well as the group sense are contained in the word
and in the texts wherein it occurs. Both senses must, therefore, be
acknowledged in any attempt to make space for the one within the other:
the importance of personal submission within the framework of group
identification as well as the possibility of personal submission outside the
parameters of the historical community of Islam.

‘The fact of a non-reified islam is clear from the Qur’an and from the
interpreters whose views I have examined here. The Qur'an is explicit
about two such forms: the islam of the prophets who preceded
‘Muhammad and their communities, and submission to the will of God by
the various non-human elements in nature (3:73). Of significance for the
present study is a third form: islam in individuals and communities who

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share common space, geography or time with the adherents of reified
Islam: in other words, those known today as Muslims.

Even in a traditional exegetical work such as al-Tabari’s, it is evident
that din is viewed as an active response to the will of God rather than
ethno-social membership of a particular group. This, of course, does not
mean that al-Tabari, or even al-Zamakhshari, is open to accepting as
‘muslims those who dissociate themselves from such a group. Al-Tabari,
for example, states that the Prophet came with both the ‘exposition of
truth? (bayan al-hag) and the way co serve truth (din al-hag) (1954, 12,
P. 58) which, as Smith has pointed out, is significantly different from
‘the true din’ (al-din al-hag). “Din al-hag thus means not “the true din”
which would have to be al-din al-hag, but obedience, submission, service to
truth in terms of what God has made known in His huda (guidance) and
bayan (discourse). This then is the din Allah (not the religion of God but
the service of God) the total response to God Himself" (Smith 1975, p. 74).

‘Traditional exegesis is thus not entirely without the germs for reli-
gious pluralism, Despite the insights that a study of these works may
provide and the crutches these may afford to any attempt at rethinking
difficult texts, we need to remember the context wherein traditional
scholars wrote; it simply did not produce the kinds of questions that
modernity or South African apartheid have raised. It would thus be
untenable, as I argued in the beginning of this chapter, to base the search
for a theology of religious pluralism and for liberation purely on the ideas
produced in their works.

Notwithstanding the present-day use of texts such as Qur'an 3:19
and 39:22 to affirm the superiority of Islam over other faiths, the univer-
sal underpinnings in the term islam, lead one to the understanding that
the text embraces all of those who submit to the will of God. This
embrace includes the religious Other along with ‘the diversity of some of
the obligations and the forms of practices in them, and with which they
have been enjoined” (Rida 1980, 3, p. 257). In the words of Rida, ‘the
true mustim is one who is unblemished by the errors of shirk, sincere in
his [or her] actions and having faith, from whatsoever, community, in
whatever period or place . . . This is the meaning of “Whosoever desires a
din other than islam will never have it [his or her choice] accepted”
{Qur'an 3:85]' (Rida 1980, 3, p. 257).

From a careful study of islam in the Qur'an and in the various con-
texts already mentioned, it is evident that it has the potential to be freed
from the gloss of medieval theology and the historically bound context of
intra-community polemics that characterized the Prophet's Hijaz. The

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inclusivist meaning of islam is, at times, also apparent from the context of
a particular text. An example of this is the context of the text cited by Rida
above, where the statement “Do they pursue @ din other than that of God’
can only render an inclusivist meaning if the context is also considered.

‘The South African reality of people with ‘Muslim’ labels actively par-
ticipating in the oppression of millions of black people, on the one hand,
and people wearing an array of religious Other labels ~ and some refusing
to wear any religious label — sacrificing their lives for the cause of justice
and freedom, on the other, easily convinces one of the necessity to go
beyond labels. Where these labels are formulated by God, we are left with
no option but to find meanings truer to the image of a God obsessed with
justice. The Qur’an portrays @ muslim as someone who submits to a
divinity beyond, and more abiding, than that muslim and beyond reified
religion, God is akbar (greater than) any conception of Him or any form
of institutionalized or non-institutionalized service to Him. It is to God
that the Qur'an persistently requires islam.

Rethinking Kufr

Thave selected the following verses to underpin my reflection on the
qur'anic use of the word kufr:

Verily, as for those who reject/re ungrateful (yakfur] for the signs of
God, and slay the Prophets against all right, and slay people who
enjoin justice, announce unto them a grievous chastisement, It is they
whose works shall come to nought, both in this world and in the life
to come; und they shall have none to succour them. (Qur'an 3:21-2)

This text combines the apparently doctrinal (hur) with the apparently
socio-political (justice) in a manner that goes beyond liberal discourse. It
does not only denounce kufr and those who obstruct justice, but promises
them a ‘grievous chastisement’ and the loss of any support, The second
verse (3:22) is also an example of a text used to deny the significance of
all forms of religiosity, however sincere, if they are not rooted in reified
Islam. Furthermore, the various exegeses on this text offer interesting
insights into the interpretation of kufr and its application, or otherwise, to
Jews and Christians. Finally, these interpretations are illustrative of the
failure of classical exegesis to distinguish between Au/r as an active atti-
tude of individuals (or a collection of individuals) and the socio-religious
(and often ethnic) identity of a group.

‘This text follows the one discussed on page 126 (3:19) wherein the
‘true din according to God’ is stated to be al-islam and where

134

Redefining Self & Other

Muhammad is instructed to declare to those who dispute with him that
they have an obligation to submit (to God). However, if they tum back,
then he, Muhammad, will be freed from any responsibility towards them
because his task is only to proclaim the message. This text is followed by
a reference to those who have been given ‘a portion of the Scripture’ but
refuse to have their affairs judged by the Book of God. This refusal, the
Qur'an says, is rooted in religious arrogance and a denial that the fire will
touch them beyond a few days (3:23-4),

The expression ‘those who reject the signs of God’ in Qur'an 3:21-2
is one of several ways of describing the (rejected) Other in the Qur'an
using some form of the word Aufr. Other forms are the participial noun
afir, and its plural, kuffar or kaftrun.” Kufr in the Qur'an and in Muslim
discourse has become the term most pregnant with all that is despised in
the rejected Other. It is a word that has entered several other languages,
from Turkish to French, as a term of abuse. More pertinenty, in a slight-
ly altered form, Aaffir, it has entered South African racist discourse as the
most potent abusive expression for the black majority. Leonard
‘Thompson, a South African historian, asserts that they were called Cafres
because it was believed that ‘there are no signs of belief or religion to be
found among them’ (1985, p. 73). In the South African example, we find
the perfect fusion between religious and ethno-ideological chauvinism:
hafir as a ‘violent symbol of religious exclusion’ (Omar 1991, p. 9) and
haffir as racist demonizing of the Other. In this context, the task of
rethinking Auf, is thus deeply human and firmly connected to the search
for justice.

Lexicographers such as Ibn Manzur (n.d., 5, pp. 3897-902) and
Lane (1980, 7, pp. 2620-2) give several meanings of kufr, most of these
illustrated by @ qur’anic text. It is agreed that it means “to conceal’, the
sense in which its carliest usage is known. Later it came to be used for
concealing something with the intention of destroying it. However, its
most common earlier usage was ‘concealing an act of grace or kindness’
ive., ‘ingratitude’ (al-Baidawi n.d., 1, p. 50). Much later, when islam
came to represent an act of God’s grace, the word came to be synony-
mous with denying it, A Aafir came to mean someone who, having
‘received God's benevolence, shows no sign of gratitude in his {or her]
conduct, or even acts rebelliously against his (or her] benefactor’ (Izutsu
1966, p. 120). Fzutsu has shown that while the word kafir itself contains
an important clement of disbelief, “it must be remembered, this is not the
only basic semantic constituent of the word, nor is it the original one’
(ibid,, p. 26). From an examination of pre-Islamic literature he has

a & Plura’

shown that the “real core . . . of its semantic structure was not “un-
belief”, but rather “ingratitude” or “unthankfulness”' (ibid.).

Looking at the way these texts have been approached in the selected
exegetical works provides a useful background for further reflections on
the word kufr. Al-Zamakhshari and Ibn ‘Arabi do not make any specific
application of the term here, with Tn ‘Arabi interpreting ‘those who reject
the signs of God’ as ‘those who are veiled from the din’ (n.d., 1, p. 105).
Both al-Tabari (1954, 3, p. 216) and al-Razi (1990, 7, p. 231) say that
this refers to the People of the Book while al-Tabataba’i (1973, 3, p. 123)
and Rida (1930, 3, p. 262) are more specific and suggest that it refers to
the Jews of Mecca and Medina especially.

In the Qur'an the word is used with all these meanings. Qur'an 57:20
uses it in the sense of ‘tiller of the soil” while 2:153; 14:7, 15; 26:57, 8
26:18; 27:40; 29:66; 30:33 and 39:7 are examples of where it is used to
mean ‘ungrateful’. Most frequently, though, is it used as the opposite of
iman, Izutsu has argued that, in the Qur'an, the word kafir came to
acquire the secondary meaning of “one who does not believe in God’,
"because it occurs very frequently in contrast to the word mu'min' (1966,
p. 26). He is, furthermore, correct in arguing that if ‘the nature of a word
is such thar it comes to be used with remarkable frequency in specific
contexts alongside its antonym, it must of necessity acquire a noticeable
semantic value from this frequent combination’ (ibid.). It is, however,
‘erucial to bear in mind that kufr even as an antonym of islam or iman, ix
as much a conscious attitude and a set of concrete actions as I have
shown islam and iman to be. Therefore, even if it has come to mean dis-
belief, it remains something conscious, deliberate and active rather than a
casual ignoring or disregard of the existence of God.

Despite the frequency with which the Qur’an moves into the area of
identifying Aufr with disbelief, its earliest meaning should never be aban-
doned, because its most significant semantic element is lost when we view
it in supposedly purely doctrinal terms. Muhammad Asad (d, 1992), 0
contemporary interpreter, has also argued that, given the pre-
Muhammadan meaning of the word in Arabic,

the term kafir cannot be simply equated, as many Muslim theologians
of post-classical times and practically all Western translators of the
Qur'an have done, with “unbeliever’ or ‘infidel’ in the specific,
restricted sense of one who rejects the system of doctrine and law pro-
mulgated in the Qur'an and amplified by the teachings of the Prophet
~ but must have s wider, more general meaning. (1980, p. 907)

136

Redefining Self & Other

In the more widely used sense of ‘rejecter of faith’, kafir was first applied
to some Meccans who insulted Muhammad and, later, in Medina, to var-
ious elements among the People of the Book as well. Subsequent to
Muhammad’s demise at Medina (d. 652) its usage was liberally extended
by various groups to exclude the internal Other with whom one differed.
From a study of the Qur'an in the light of the hermeneutical keys elabo-
rated in chapter 3, one is led to agree with Asad that, from its usage in
the Qur'an, a kafir is ‘one who denies (or refuses to acknowledge) the
truth in the widest, spiritual sense’ (Asad 1980, p, 907). The Qur'an por-
trays kufr as an actively and dynamic attitude of ingratitude leading to
wilful rejection of known truths, God’s gifts, and, flowing from this as
well as intrinsically connected to it, a pattern of actively arrogant and
oppressive behaviour.

From the linguistic roots of ku/r discussed above, it is evident thar
‘kufr really indicates an attitude of wilful disavowal or rejection of a gift.
‘The chapter of the Qur'an Al-Rahman (55), with its refrain about deny-
ing the grace of God, conveys a similar meaning. ‘This denial is the most
significant operative element in kur. In the same way that gratitude, if it
is to be meaningful, must go beyond verbal declarations, ingratitude is
also an active attitude and a pattern of behaviour that emerges from the
acknowledgement of debt.

As the text under discussion indicates, kufr was connected to the
active and violent opposition to the prophets of God and a determination
to destroy their mission. Thus, the Qur'an, on several occasions, links
‘hufr to those who worked ‘to sway people away from the path of God’
(6:26; 7:45; 8:36). From the text under discussion, we see that this oppo-
sition even included the actual or attempted assassinations of the
prophets of God and those who fought for justice (4:155; 5:70; 8:30).
Rather than kufr denoting a mere abstract or passive choice of non-belief,
the Qur'an portrays hufr as a characteristic that one actually strives for
(16:106; 22:51; 34:5). The kiffar, according to the Qur'an, struggle in
the way of evil (4:76) and violently resist God's will for humankind
(25:55). The Qur’an does not only link kufr with a refusal to spend one's
wealth on the poor (2:254; 3:179: 9:34, 35; 41:7) bur also with spending
it to prevent people from drawing nearer to God and to righteousness
(8:36), Instead, the typical kafir oppresses the weak (4:168; 14:13) or
maintains silence in the face of evil and oppression (5:79).

‘The idea of the Aafir in violent opposition to God should not be con-
fused with theological, rational or philosophical problems with the notion
of a supreme deity, for the kafir freely acknowledged the existence of such

137

Qur'an. Liber

& Pluralism

an entity (2:61-3; 31:25; 33:9, 78). However, the monotheism which
existed in pre-Islamic Arabia was one without any threatening socio-eco-
nomic implications for the powerful. For Muhammad though, ‘monothe~
ism was, from the beginning, linked up with a humanism and a sense of
‘social and economic justice whose intensity is no less than the intensity of
the monotheistic idea” (Rahman 1966, p. 12). The God the Meccans
rejected was one who demanded the concrete transformation of society,
from exploitation to justice, from selfishness to selflessness, from arro-
gance to humility and from a narrow tribalism to the unity of all those
committed to this new vision of society.

The Qur'an portrays Aufr as an important factor that both shaped a
bloated image of the Self and manifested itself in it and in the accompa-
nying contempt for the weak Other. As Izursu points out, kufr, in the
Qur'an, as the denial of God and His unity actually ‘manifests itself most
characteristically in various acts of insolence, haughtiness presumptuous-
ness and arrogance’ (1966, p. 120) and the idea that wealth makes one
entirely independent from others and God (9:34, 35; 13:18). The kuffar
were contemptuous of those who chose the path of islam and regularly
mocked them (10:79; 15:11; 18:106). This contempt for the muslim
Other was not purely because of the faith choices they had made, but
because they were weak and vulnerable (34:32). When they were not
among the weak themselves, they were mocked because they chose to
identify with the weak and spend their wealth in supporting them (9:79).
‘More frequently than not, Au/r had its roots in a displaced sense of tribal
superiority and class arrogance. The ku/far mocked the lowly origins of
the enrly followers of Islam and, the Qur’an suggests, they felt that their
hoarded wealth freed them from any moral obligations to others or
accountability to God. (7:48; 9:79; 19:77.)

Am I saying that Aify has nothing to do with dogma? Not quite, for
there is no doubt that Aufr also relates to a denial of dogma. The object of
Aufr im the Quran is at various times the unity of God, scripture, the
signs of God, the resurrection and the prophets. More specifically, the
Qur'an denounces as Aufr notions of the divinity of Christ (4:171; 5:17)
and any attempt to ascribe paternity to God (19:91-2; 9:30). In looking
at the seemingly doctrinal nature of Aufr in the Qur'an, several significant
issues have to be borne in mind if one is determined to avoid injustice to
those who do not carry the ‘Muslim’ label.

Firstly, whenever the Qur'an links Au/r to doctrine it does so within a
real socio-historical context and is convinced that sincere belief in the unity
of God and ultimate accountability to Him would lead to a righteous

138

Redefining Self & Other

and just society. Denying God is, for example, connected to breaking
promises and spreading corruption (2:28) and denying the resurrection
to the refusal to spend a part of their wealth on the poor (41:7). In the
light of the argument that beliefs and the consequences of holding them
are always intrinsically connected, one cannot refer to Ruff, or any other
notion, as ‘purely doctrinal’. This would be affording doctrine an ahistor-
ical sense which is not borne out by the very dynamic interplay of revela-
tion and society.

Secondly, the Qur'an portrays the Aafir as someone who has actually
recognized the unity of God and Muhammad as His Prophet, but who,
nevertheless, wilfully refuses to acknowledge it. The linguistic meaning of
hufr as (consciously) “covering something’ is consistent throughout the
Qur'an when matters of the seemingly doctrinal are raised and the
Qur'an repeatedly accuses the Aafir of concealing the truth, despite clear
knowledge of it. "They recognized [the integrity of] Muhammad’, the
Qur'an says, “as much as they recognized their own kith and kin’ (2;146;
6:20)." The deliberate nature of kufr is, furthermore, seen in the fact that
the Qur'an often uses different forms of the verbs -dh-b, (to lie) and k-t-
‘m (to conceal) as synonyms of kufr (2:42, 159, 174).

‘Thirdly, it is an antagonistic attitude to islam and to muslims, in the
sense of submission to God and to @ people who wanted to onganize their
collective existence on the basis of such submission, that the Qur'an
denounces as kufr. This is rather different from disagreeing with reified,
particularly contemporary, Islam or opposing the socio-religious commu-
nity known as Mustims,

Finally, the Qur'an is also specific about the motives of the kuffar's
decision to refrain from professing belief. They understood that belief
implied more than a mental shift to another idea or set of ideas, but that it
required a radical change in personal life, in values and in socio-economic
relations. They opted for kufr, the Qur'an says, because of narrow material
gains (21:53; 26:74; 31:21), tribal bonds (43:22) and because islam would
disturb the unjust social order (3:21).

It is impossible to separate the kufr denounced in the Qur'an from
the personal and social attitudes of Muhammad’s opponents as individu-
als or a group in Mecca or Medina. We have to try to find exactly where
we see such attitudes to islam and such pattems of socio-political behav-
iour in order to develop a contemporary application of the term Aufr and
not the mere transference of labels.

T now want to turn my attention to the commentaries dealing with
the second characteristic of the Auffar dealt with in the verse "They slay

139

Qur'an. Liber

the Prophets against all right, and slay people who enjoin justice and they
slaughter those among the people who enjoin justice.’ The commentaries
particularly show how these labels become transferred and, as a result,
the religious Other imprisoned in collective guilt. A common thread of
issues connected to justice runs through the exegesis of the phrase: col-
lective guilt and punishment, facing the consequences of one’s deeds and
the relationship between those sent as prophets of God and those strug-
ling for justice.

Much attention is devoted to the verb g-t-/ and its various renditions.
For most of the interpreters, the problem is the use of the perfect tense,
yagtulun, which refers to the present act of killing, whereas the commonly
accepted idea among them is that this refers to the past when the Jews
supposedly slew prophets who were sent to them." Most of the inter-
preters opt for yagndux. With a rather transparent and heavy dose of
racism, they apply the text to all Jews, including those who coexisted with
Muhammad in Medina. The guilt also applies to the Jewish contempo-
raries of Muhammad, they argue, because they ‘approved of their prede-
cessors’ actions’ (al-Zamakhshari n.d., 1, p. 346). Furthermore, ‘they
[the mushrikun of Mecca] attempted the assassination of the Prophet
and of the mu'minun, and would have succeeded if it were not for the
protection of God’ (ibid.). Rida offers an equally racist explanation of
the corporate guilt. “The killing of Prophets who had preceded them
{the Jews of Medins]", Rida wrote, ‘is ascribed to them as a community
in its burdens since the vestiges of the past are visited upon those in the
present’ (1980, 3, p. 261). Al-Tabataba’i follows suit, although in a
more strident vein: “The unjustified slaughter of prophets and those who
enjoined justice and equity and who prohibited from oppression and
‘aggression was an ingrained habit and characteristic running in them as
confirmed by the history of the Jews’ (1973, 3, p. 123),

‘The notion that evil runs through the blood of some groups, particu-
larly the Jews, is also carried through in interpretations of the second accu-
sation; ‘and they slaughter those among the people who enjoin justice’.
Both al-Tabari (1954, 3, p. 216) and al-Zamakhshari (n.d., 1, p. 347)
suggest that this is a specific reference to individuals among the Jews
who opposed the killings of prophets and they limit its application to
those who oppose sin in the moralistic sense. While al-Tabataba'i does
not have anything noteworthy to say at this juncture, al-Razi, Ibn ‘Arabi
and, especially, Rida, make some very significant statements about the
status of those who struggle for justice; they compare their status to just
‘one level below that of the prophets. None of the interpreters, however,

140

z Self & Other

use this opportunity to draw attention to the important fact that, within
these religiously Other communities, there had always existed elements in
the midst of injustice who stood firm against severe odds, a fact born out
by all the accounts of the event that was supposed to have occasioned the
revelation of this verse.” To tar these individuals with the same brush as
those whom they opposed is itself manifest injustice.

After arguing that this verse is proof that those who enjoin the good
and forbid evil in conditions of fear are just below the elevated stages of
the prophets, al-Razi cites a hadith that ‘the preferred jihad is a truth spo-
ken in the presence of a tyrant’ (1990, 7, p. 232). Ibn “Arabi talks about
justice being the shadow of tawhid and says that ‘whosoever denies the
shadow has denied the essence’ (n.d., 1, p. 51). Rida believes that this is a
reference to the wise and to sages ‘who guide people to general justice in
everything and made it the spirit and support of virtue’ (1980, 3, p. 262)
He also agrees that ‘their status in guidance and righteousness follows that
of the Prophets’ (ibid., p. 263). He is quite categorical that they include
those ‘convinced by religion and the areligious who, despite this, [their
areligiousness}, enjoined justice from an intellectual and rational basis’
(ibid.). Rida then notes a very interesting point which his mentor,
Muhammad ‘Abdub, made about this text: ‘By the use of the expression
‘min al-nas {among people] rather than min al-mw'minin {among the mu’mi-
num, the comprehensiveness of this text is illustrated’ (ibid., p. 263).

All the classical scholars refrain from making any substantial com-
ment about the last part of this text, i.e. ‘announce unto them a grievous
chastisement’ other than saying that this punishment is to be meted out
in the hereafter. Rida is decidedly specific about the people to whom this
text applies: ‘This punishment’, Rida wrote, ‘afflicts those among them
[the Jews} during the era of prophethood in this world; afterwards they
join those who preceded them in the hereafter’ (ibid., p. 263). He thus
implicitly excludes Jews who come after the prophetic era. In stark con-
trast to this, al-Tabataba’i suggests that all Jews will be punished up to
the Day of Requital:

‘They are warned of chastisement in this world as well as in the here-
after . .. [where] punishment is the fire of hell. As for this world, it is
what they have suffered of massacres, dispersion and expulsion, loss
of life and property, and what God has imposed upon them of enmi-
ty and hatred among them. These are to continue up to the Day of
Judgement, as has been clarified in the Qur'an, (1973, 3, pp. 123-4)

‘The assumptions of collective guilt arising from ‘collective kufr’ are

141

Liberar

Qer’

significant for any discourse on faith and justice. It is to these assump-
tions, which are not entirely without foundations within the Qur'an itself,
that I now tun.

Regarding the last part of the text under discussion, ‘it is they whose
works shall come to nought, both in this world and in the life to come;
and they shall have none to succour them’, al-Tabari simply states that
‘their attempts tw harm Muhammad will come to nought, that they will
be humiliated by people and that God will withhold His grace from
them’ (1954, 3, p. 217). Al-Razi, al-Tabstaba’i and even Ibn ‘Arabi leave
little doubt to whom this reference is made; all Jews ‘up to the Day of
Judgement’, “Their lot in this world’, says al-Razi, “includes the substitu
tion of acclamation with blame, of praise with damnation . . . the slaugh-
ter of children, the expropriation of their wealth, their enslavement and
other forms of obvious disgrace’ (1990, 7, p. 233). Ibn ‘Arabi's commen-
tary, while free from this kind of bitterness, nevertheless, also implies a
sense of uninterrupted corporate (Jewish) culpability in kufr and rejection
of the prophets.

In dealing with the Other, most of the interpreters display a confu-
sion, identifying a particular part of a specific community, living in a
confined geographical area, with all those who, by choice or accident of
birth, belong to or identify with that community irrespective of the dif-
ferences that may separate its diverse components. It is only when the
application of a particular description is too starkly specific that such a
distinction is made. This kind of confusion is also implicit in the qur’an-
ic text. The text often insists, explicitly and implicitly, that there are
exceptions for virtually every negative statement about the Other. There
fare several illustrations of this in the Qur'an: the denunciation of the
a’rab (Bedouin) as ‘severest in kufr and nifag’ (9:97, 101) is followed by
an exception that there are others ‘who believe in God and the Last
Day, consider what they spend’ (9:99, 102). In another example, we see
that Abraham is allowed to pray for his progeny (2:128) but, when he
suggests that his leadership should be extended to his offspring, the
Qur'an firmly states that the promise of God is unrelated to blood rela-
tions and that it excludes the oppressors (2:124). Similarly, after a long
discourse on the promise that Abraham made on behalf of his offspring
and the subsequent commitments of the Israelite prophets to abide by
them (2:128-33), the Qur'an concludes: “That is a people who have
passed; for ther is what they earned and for you is what you eam’ (2:134)
‘This text is repeated in several other instances (2:134, 136, 141). However,
the Qur'an also ignores this distinction at times (¢.g., 20:13; 27:83) and

142

Self & Other

here the reader actually requires the will to see these distinctions, in order
to avoid blanket judgements. This is an issue intrinsically related to jus-
tice. The qur‘anic commitment to justice and the linking of the prophets
to those who enjoin justice, on the one hand, and kufr to those who sup-
Port injustice, on the other, require a determination to make such distinc~
tions, and to search for the hermeneutical means to make this possible.
Other than its emphasis on Aufr as active and dynamic, the Qur'an also
refers to the kuffar as a group, without necessarily alluding to their activi-
ties, ie., it acknowledges their existence as a distinct group which it
names kuffar or kafirun. It is noteworthy that such references occur most
frequently within the context of armed conflict between them and the
Muslims (e.g., 3:140, 150, 155; 4:84; 33:22). Furthermore, it also
addresses groups in corporate terms and this raises significant questions
about group identity, personal responsibility and corporate guilt.

‘The qur’anic position on these questions appears to be contradictory
and should be viewed in the context of tribal society and the Qur’an's
‘own ethical objectives, “The ideal of the tribe’, says Izutsu

was the Alpha and Omega of human existence. The bond of kinship
by blood, the burning sense of honour based on the all-importance
of blood relations, which required that a man should take the side of
hin tribal brothers regardless of whether they were right or wrong,
love of one’s own tribe, bitter soorn of the outsiders; these furnished
the final yardsticks by which the people of Jahiliyyah measured per-
sonal values. (1966, p. 58)

While the Qur'an had to assume and ‘speak’ within a given context of
such unbridled teibalism, it also wanted to impose on every individual the
responsibility for his or her deeds. The ascribing of the murder of
prophets to the Jews is # case in point, While the Qur'an asks the
Medinan Jews ‘Why, then, did you slay the Prophets of God aforetime?*
(2:91), it appears to pur the blame for the crimes on to them. In the sense
that, as a part of the group they may have owned the deed, as some of the
interpreters have suggested, this may be an appropriate question.
However, it does not follow that they ought to be held accountable for it,
for to do so would be to align oneself with manifest injustice. The
Qur'an, we may say, used the existing institutions and tured them on
their heads in order to give a new sense of values to society in place of the
blind commitment to the group. Abu Jabl, a leading figure among the
mushrikun, is reported to have described Muhammad as ‘one who, more
than anyone else, has cut the bond of kinship by blood and wrought that

143

Qurtan, Liberar & Pluralism

which is scandalous’ (Izutsu 1966, p. 58). While the Qur'an sometimes
appears to speaks in terms of those loyalties and identities, it consciously
and determinedly moves away from them.

‘The Day of Judgement and the ultimate accountability of individuals in
front of God is particularly illustrative of the Qur'an’s determination to
break from notions of collective responsibility. On that day, the Qur'an says,
all their much-valued ties of blood relations will be rendered utterly meaning-
Jess (80:34-37; 58:22; 9:113-114). ‘On [the] day when everyone will [want
10} flee from his (or her] brother {or sister], and from his [or her] mother and
father, and from his [or her] spouse and children’ (80:34-36) it will be every
individual, with his or her actions, who will be put in the balance.

Conclusion: From Counting Labels to

Judging Content

‘To affirm the dynamic nature of iman, islam and kufr and their nuances is
to affirm the basic ethos of justice in the Qur'an, According to the
Qur'an, it is not labels that are counted by God, but actions that are
weighed (2:17; 99:7-8). One cannot hold hostage to the ethos of Aufr
which characterized their forebears, those who, by accident of birth, are a
part of any group, nor others who subsequently emerge from it; nor can
we do this to individuals who existed within that group, but were non-
participants in Aufr. Similarly, one cannot attribute the faith commitment
and faith of preceding generations of muslims to contemporary Muslims,

The objective towards which the Qur'an moves is more significant
than the premise from which it starts. The fact of group identity should
not be allowed to subvert a principle of personal accountability that the
Qur'an explicitly and repeatedly affirms. If individuals are held account-
able for deeds that are going to be weighed, then one is left with no alter~
native but to affirm the dynamic nature of islam, iman and kufr.
Individuals are ever-changing entities. Every new encounter with our-
selves and others, every deed that we do or refuse to do, is a step in our
perpetual transformation.

Notes

4. Sayyidain (1972), Talbs (1981; 1985), Engneer (1982), Vahiduddin (1983), Rahman (1963;
1968), Farug (1963), Hanafi (1988). Ayoub (1989, 1991) and al-Badawi (1991) are but some
ff the contemporary Mushm scholars who have argued the case for an appreciation of ism
beyond its institutional and historical forms

2 le may be justifiably erred from the contest of this verse that iman is contrasted with

ge Self & Other

{greed for material wealth,

3. Eg, 356: 457. 122: 59%, 648 742. 10% 11-23; 13:29; 1423; 18:30, 107: 19:60; 72:50;
2455; 25:70, 2758; 318; 32:19,

4. Eg, 22B1; 3.24; 4:40, 85; 12556; 16111; 2884.

5. The islom referred to in this text ws the formula aslamtu which was used as the formal dec-
laration of submission to the Prophet's authority.

6. The word din. in various forms, occurs $4 mes in the Quran: 65 times as a verbal noun,
26 times in the possessive case (te. ‘my di. "your di) and only three times in its verbal
form, It occurs about as frequently in both the Meccan and Medinan texts, Significantly,
nowhere is it uted in its plural form. edyon.

7. CanewellSmith demonatrates how this was a relatively ‘new concept .. a8 part of the
“impingement on Arabia at the ume of new ideas, movements, and sophrbcapen from the sur-
rounding cultures’ (1991, p. 101). "Arab life’ he writes, had facets that medern scholars may
have dubbed ‘the religion of the pre-lamic Arabs. But the customs and orientations to which
the modern student gives that rame had not been organized or systematized or reed either
sociologically or conceptually in the area itself by their new participants (ibd, p. 102),

8. As with the studies on the origins of dn, chose on iiam broadly follow the pattern of an
‘unambiguously confessional approach, which examines the term through the ‘ith eyes’ of
the scholar and putatively objective studies by non-Mushm scholars. In the course of research
for this present study, no Muslim work specifically dealing with the term was encountered. In
Addition to the works of trutsu and CancwellSmth, who devote considerable attention to
the torm, Lidzbarsky (1722), Ringgren (1949) and Robson (1954) have produced some gener
al studies on he term, while Kunsthnger (1935), ‘Abd abRa'ut (1967), McDonough (1971)
and Smich (1975) have deal with the term as i appears in the Qur'an or, in the case of the
latter, a8 it has been understood in works of exegesis.

19. "The competing factor in che Ines of a parvcular edwno-soclogial community (mia jrshyah)'
wrote Rida, s ‘the contemporary siaabon of kes members and not is known oF unknown origins
[as a religous commuriey’ (1980, 3, p. 361), "And the di of the People of the Book was tras
ormed into an ethnic phenomenon in ths Lense: that which prevented the Pecple of the
Book from folowing the Prophet m what he brought of the explaration ofthe pint ofthe de of
‘God, Islam is chat which al the Prophets had. along with che diversity of dar la’ (ibid)

10, The Qur'an does, however, use several other parcicpial nouns to describe those who
‘oppote or reject ies mestage. abet none of them as frequently at thote based on kf. These
words themselves function 2s some kind of interpretation of what huff means. They include
“mischiet makers? (mufiidun) (3:63; 10:40; 29:36); “deniers’ (mukadhdhibun) (56:51; $2:1 1;
56:92}; ‘lars’ (kadhibun) (16105; 23:90; 16:39; 29:3); ‘wrongdoers’"opprestors" (zalimun)
(2.258; 633; 29:31; 2949, 6127).

1, See also 289; 3:69, 70, 385, 398; 4115; 1683: 27:14, 31.25.

12. AL-Tabar\ says that ‘most of the people from Medina, Hijaz. Basrah and Kua as well as all
the other major centres recited it as "yogtuluna” (they slay). Some of the later readers from
Kuta, based thele reading on that of “Abd Allah ion Masud. who rected it as “yuqatiuna”
(they fight). (1954, 3, p. 216). In addition to the weight of majority opinion, the supposed
incident about which ths verse was revealed was another reason why the reading yoqtubin
‘was adopted in preference to yuqativn

13. The account of this incident is given as follows: “Ic is narraced that Abu "Ubaydah ibn
Jarrah said “lashed the Messenger of God which person will tufler the severest punishment
‘on the Day of Resurrection.” He sait “Someone who killed a Prophet or [who killed) 3 per-
4200 Who enjoined good and forbade evil” Then the Prophet read this verse and said: “O Abu
“Ubaydah the Israelites kiled forty dhree Prophets in the morning in a single hour. A hun-
dred men from among the slaves of the Israelites enjoined the murderers with good and
forbade them from evil. All of these men were killed by che end of the day” (al-Tabari 1954,
3,p. 216: alRazi 1990, 7, p. 231: alZamakhshari ad. 1, p. 348)

145

THE Qur’aN &
THE OTHER

PLURALISM & JUSTICE

Dignity ies in che reality, not in the appearance.

(Ab Tabaaba's 1973, 1, 193)

An All-Seeing God Who Does Not
Turn a Blind Eye

¢ Qur'an presents a universal, inclusivist perspective of a divine

being who responds to the sincerity and commitment of all His ser~
vants, From this, two questions arise. Firstly, how does traditional
qur'anic interpretation present a parochial image of a deity that does not
differ from that postulated by the Medinan Jews and Christians which is
denounced in the Qur'an? This is an image of a deity who belongs to a
small group of people and who, having chosen His favourites, turns a
blind eye to the sincere spiritual and social commitments of all others
‘outside this circle, Secondly, how does the universality of the Qur’an’s
message relate to the exctusivism and virulent denunciation of the Other,
indeed, even its exhortation to wage an armed struggle against the Other?

While the context of individual verses dealing with the religious
Other is often carefully recorded by the earlier interpreters, they do not
show any understanding of the overall historical context of a particular
revelation,’ The task of shedding historical light on various texts, has
the domain of non-Muslim scholars,
‘Muslim reluctance to deal with the question of contextualization beyond
the search for an isolated occasion of revelation, has led to a generalized

until recently, been primarily

146

The Qur'an & the Other

denunciation of the Other, irrespective of the socio-historical context of
the texts used in support of such rejection and damnation.

‘The qur'anic position towards the Other unfolded gradually in terms
of the Other's varied responses to the message of Islam and to the
prophetic presence. Any view to the contrary would invariably lead to the
conclusion that the Qur'an presents a confused and contradictory view of
the Other. For those unable or unwilling to see the gradualist and contex-
tual nature of qur'anic revelation, there have been two ways of dealing
with the problem of ‘contradictory texts’ regarding the Other: liberal
scholars have often just ignored the verses denouncing the Other, while
traditionalist and conservative scholars have resorted to what can only be
described as forced linguistic and exegetical exercises to compel inclu-
sivist texts to produce exclusivist meanings.

‘The idea of the gradual and contextual development of the qur'anic
position towards the religious Other has significant implications. Firstly,
‘one cannot speak of a ‘final qur'anic position’ towards the Other and,
secondly, it is wrong to apply texts of opprobrium in a universal manner
to all those whom one chooses to define as “People of the Book’ or ‘dis-
believers’, in an ahistorical fashion. It is not that the traditional exegetes
are incapable of examining the context of a particular verse and thereby
limiting its application. The problem is that this contextualization is only
done when the Qur'an refers to the Other in positive terms. In such cases
every attempt is made to limit its meaning and application. Most tradi-
ional scholars, for instance, insist on limiting the generosity of the more
inclusivist texts to a particular individual such as the King of Abyssinia,
who gave refuge to an early group of Muslims, or ‘Abd Allah ibn Salam,
1 Jewish convert to Islam,

Beliefs and behaviour are not genetic elements, like the colour of
one’s eyes, in supposedly homogeneous and unchanging communities, It
is to guard against the injustices of such generalizations that texts of
‘opprobrium referring to other religious communities or the association
ists are usually followed or preceded by exceptions (e.g. Qur'an 3:75).
Furthermore, qualifying or exceptive expressions such as ‘from among
them’ (3:75), ‘many among them’ (2:109; 5:66; 22:17; 57:26), ‘most of
them’ (2:105; 7:102; 10:363), “some of them’ (2:145) and ‘a group
among them’ (3:78), are routinely used throughout the qur’anic dis-
course on the Other.

The Qur'an provides only the basis for the attitude of Muslims
towards the Other at any given time. The gur'anic position, in tum, was
largely shaped by the varying responses of the different components of

147

& Plurati

the Other, to the struggle for the establishment of an order based on
tawhid, justice and islam. More often than not, these responses assumed
concrete political forms in decisions to side with or against the Muslim
community. Much of the qur’anic opprobrium is directed at the way doc-
trine was used to justify exploitative practices and tribal chauvinism. It is
not as if the Qur'an avoided the discourse on power or denounced the
exercise of political power; it was concerned about whom political power
served and who suffered as a consequence of it.

How Does the Qur'an Describe the Other?

‘The following are the most frequent of the expressions used in the
Qur'an to refer to various types of people in general religious terms:
mu'minun, ‘righteous’; muslimun, ‘People of the Book’, ‘Jews',
‘Christians’, ‘associationists’; kafirun/kuffar and munafiqun. 1 shall make
some brief observations about the qur’anic use of these terms before I
examine the context of its attitude towards the Other,

1. ‘The terms usually used in translation are often, at best, approxima-
tions of their Arabic meanings. The Qur'an, for example, does not use
the equivalent of the words ‘non-Muslim’ or ‘unbeliever’; yet these
are the most common English renderings of kafirun/kuffar both in the
process of translation and internal usgge within the Arabic language.

2. Some of these terms, such as mu’minun (literally, ‘the convinced
ones) and mustimun (literally, ‘submitters’) or "People of the Book’
and ‘Christians’ or ‘Jews’ are frequently used interchangeably in the
Qur'an, It is essential to maintain the qur’anic distinction in their yar-
ious uses in order to avoid a generalized and unjust condemnation of
the Other,

3. In addition to these nouns, the Qur'an also employs descriptive
phrases such as alladhina amanu (literally, ‘those who are convinced’)
instead of mu'minun and alladhina kaffaru (literally, ‘those who
deny/reject/are ungrateful’) instead of fafirun (literally,
‘deniers'/rejecters'/ingrates’). ‘These descriptive phrases express spe-
cific nuances in the text and indicate a particular level of faith convic-
tion or of denial/rejection/ingratitude in much the same way as ‘one
who writes poetry’ has a different nuance from ‘poet’

4. References to these groups are occasionally to a specific community
within a historical setting and, at other times, to a community in a
wider sense, transcending one specific situation.

5. Besides the terms of opprobrium such as Aafir, monafig (hypocrite),’
and mushrik, the other terms are rarely used in a negative or positive

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The Qur'an & the Other

manner without exceptions. While praise or reproach are usually
inherent in some of these terms, this is not without exception. Indeed,
the Qur'an, at times, describes the reprehensible acts committed by
some of those from among the Muslim or believing community as
ufe or shirk (39:7).

6. These terms are often, but not always, used in the sense of a historico-
religio-social group. The hypocrites and righteous were invariably
referred to as individuals and the term muslim and its various forms,
for example, is also frequently invoked to refer to the characteristic of
submission in an individual, group or even an inanimate object.

The People of the Book

Given the situation of seventh-century Arabia and the Qur’an’s own
internal objectives of affirming sawhid as part of the legacy of pre-
Muhammadan revelation, the Qur'an devotes considerable attention to
the mushrikun and the People of the Book as two distinct categories,
When Muhammad and his group of followers, the ‘Emigrants’ or
*Exiles’, arrived in Medina in 622, they found its inhabitants comprised
mainly Arabs and Jews.’ Aws and Khazraj, the two major Arab tribes,
lived in the desert areas of Yathrib, later renamed Medina. Aws lived in
the area of al-‘Awali (the high places) alongside the Jewish tribes of
Qurayzah and al-Nadir. The Khazraj lived in the lower and less fertile
areas of Yathrib, where they were the neighbours of another prominent
Jewish tribe, Banu Qaynuga’. The vast majority of Aws and Khazraj
entered Islam and key figures among them had, in fact, invited the
Prophet to come to Medina to assume the leadership role over them after
their intermittent tribal wars.

In Medina, where Muhammad became the ruler of a cosmopolitan
society, the Jewish communities played a significant economic, political
and intellectual role. The Jews, not infrequently the power brokers of
Arabian tribes from whose regular intertribal wars many political gains
were made, comprised twenty-odd tribes. The most prominent of these
‘were Banu Qurayzah, al-Nadir and Qaynuga’. Together with Banu ‘Awf
and Banu al-Najjar, both Jewish tribes, they owned some of the richest
agricultural lands in the south of Medina. Khaybar, however, was the
largest centre of Jewish concentration in the north of Hijaz, between
Yathrib and Taymah. The strategic distribution of Jewish power centres
ensured their control of large areas of fertile land for development. These
centres were thus fortified and amply provided with weapons. Prior to the

149

Qur'an, Liberation & Pluralism

coming of Muhammad, as Ahmad notes, the Jews enjoyed complete lib-
erty, ‘concluded offensive and defensive alliances and carried on feuds’
(Ahmad 1979, p. 27). Narrow tribalism characterized intra-Jewish rela-
tions ‘so much so that they could not live as one religious group [nor]
close ranks even at the time of the Prophet when they faced banishment’
(al-‘Umari 1991, 1, p. 44). On the whole, the Jewish tribes denied the
veracity of Muhammad’s mission and his claims to prophethood.

Soon after he entered Medina, Muhammad twinned all the Exiles
with their hosts, known as the "Helpers’, in a formal relationship of fra-
temnity. This reflected the basis of the new society: faith rather than tribe.
‘The relationships between the Exiles and the Helpers and between the
‘Muslims and the Jews were formally outtined in a document ‘forming all
of them into single community of believers but allowing for differences
between the two religions’ (Lings 1983, p. 125). Also known as the
‘Treaty of Medina, the authenticity of this document is widely acknowl-
edged, although there is disagreement as to whether it is a single agree-
ment of a combination of two or more agreements reached over a long
period (Rodinson 1980, p. 152; al-"Umari 1991, 1, pp. 99-102). It is evi-
dent that at the initial stages of his stay in Mecca, Muhammad had no
prejudices against the Jews. On the contrary, as Maxine Rodinson
remarks ‘he regarded the contents of the message he brought as substan-
tally the same as that received years ago by the Jews on the Sinai’ (1980,
p. 158). The following extract from the treaty indicates how questions of
freedom of belief, sanctity of religious and personal property and obliga-
tions of mutual defence and solidarity were dealt with: “The Jews of Banu
‘Ataf will be a community with the mu minury; the Jews shall have their
religion and the Muslims theirs, their allies and their persons shall be safe
except for those who behave unjustly, for they hurt but themselves and
their families’ (cited in al-"Umari, 1991, 1, p. 107)

‘The fraternal relationship between Aws and Khazraj had made the
old alliances between them and their erstwhile Jewish allies redundant,
Despite the treaty they had entered into with Muhammad, the Jews, nev-
ertheless, longed for a return to their erstwhile position of influence and
authority. Muslim accounts suggest that this resentment was sufficient to
Jead many Jews, initially secretly and later openty, to identify with the
Quraysh in their desire to annihilate Muhammad and his followers,
Subsequent Jewish breaches of the treaty, usually on the eve of, or during
a war with, the Quraysh, or alleged attempts on the life of Muhammad,
Jed to the expulsion of Banu Qaynuga‘, Banu al-Nadir and Banu
‘Qurayzah from Medina.”

150

The Qu

a & the Other

Another religious community who were, in the main, physically
absent from Medina but were, nevertheless, a significant part of the
Muslim-Other qur’anic discourse, were the Christians. Muhammad had
encountered Christians as religious ascetics on his travels as a business
‘man,’ as slaves and visiting traders in Mecca and even as neighbours in
Medina. Prior to their presence in Medina, Muslims encountered and
enjoyed the protection and hospitality of an established Christian stare
and found among them ‘the best of neighbours’ (Ibn Sa‘d 1967, 1, pp.
235-40) during the first and second flights to exile in Abyssinia. All of
these early Muslim encounters with the Christian Other were character-
ized by warmth towards and affirmation of the Muslims by the
Christians, Much later, Christians were included in the qur’anic injune-
tion to ‘fight against those who believe not in Allah, nor in the Last Day,
nor forbid that which has been forbidden by Allah and His messenger
and who do not acknowledge the din of truth among the People of the
Book until they pay the tax with willing submission and feel themselves
subdued’ (9:29),

‘Theologically though, much of the early Muslim understanding of
Christianity and Christology seems to have filtered through to the
Muslims in an indirect manner from the Jewish community, until much
later, when a delegation of religious leaders from the Christians of Najran
in southern Arabia, north-east of Yemen, came to Medina in 632,
According to Muslim accounts, most of the discussion centred around
seemingly theological matters. These accounts also suggest that the major
factor that prevented the Najran delegation from recognizing
Muhammad’s prophethood was their indebtedness to their political mas-
ters, who opposed Muhammad. Explaining his refusal to acknowledge
the Prophet, the bishop is reported to have told his companions: ‘The
way these people have treated us! They have given us titles, paid us
stipends and honoured us. But they are absolutely opposed to him
(Muhammad), and if we were to accept him, they would take away from
us all that you see’ (Ibn Hisham n.d., 3, p. 271). The delegation prayed
in Muhammad's mosque and entered into an agreement with him where-
by he would send a capable Muslim to them to assist in the arbitration of
some intemal disputes. Furthermore, taxes would be exacted from them in
retum for receiving protection from the Muslim state.”

‘The tension in the religious-ideological relationship between the
‘Muslims and the People of the Book was inevitable. The Qur’an claimed
an affinity with scriptural tradition, and furthermore, claimed to be its
guardian, An unwelcome response was inevitable on the part of those

151

Liberation & Pluralism

who claimed their scripture to be legitimate and final, in and by them-
selves. Much of the Qur’an’s attention to the Other in Medina is, there-
fore, devoted to this tension. The frequency of the qur’anic references to
the People of the Book and their shared scriptural history are among the
reasons why most Muslim literature dealing with the Other focuses on
the People of the Book. There are several other reasons for the preoccu-
pation with this category. Since most of the mushrikun converted to Islam
after the liberation of Mecca (630), at the earliest stages of its history,
Jews and Christians were essentially the communities that Muslims and
their jurisprudence had to deal with. The historical encounter over territo-
ry (both ideological and geographical) was also largely between Muslims
and Christians. In the modem period, as Muslims are struggling to over-
come the divisions of the past and to find avenues of coexisting and co-
operating with those of other faiths, they find it theologically easier to
focus on a category with which the Qur’an scems to have some sympathy.
Finally, the present pre-eminence of the Western world ~ itself a product
of a predominantly Christian and, to # lesser extent, Jewish heritage ~ in
the fields of technology, science and politics, requires some Muslim focus
on relations with the People of the Book, even if only as one way of com-
ing to terms with the fact of this pre-eminence or domination,

There are however, several problems in focusing on the People of the
Book as w distinct contemporary religious group in the belief that this is
the same referent as that in the Qur'an. The qur'anic position towards
the People of the Book and even its understanding as to who constinutes
the People of the Book went through several phases. There is, however,
agreement that the term has always applied to the Jews and Christians
whom Muhammad encountered during his mission. "The Qur'an naturally
dealt only with the behaviour and beliefs of those of the People of the Book
with whom the early Muslim community were in actual social contact.” To
employ the qur'anic category of People of the Book in a generalized man-
ner of simplistic identification of all Jews and Christians in contemporary
society is to avoid the historical realities of Medinan society, as well as the
theological diversity among both earlier and contemporary Christians and
Jews." To avoid this unjust gencralization, therefore, requires a clear idea
from their sources of their beliefs, as well as their many nuances, that
characterized the various communities encountered by the early
Muslims. Given the paucity of such extra-qur'anic knowledge, one
would either have to abandon the search for a group with corresponding.
dogma today of shift one's focus to an area of practice and attitudes
rather than dogma.

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The Qur'an & the Other

In practice, the latter option had always been exercised. In none of
the disciplines of exegesis, Islamic history or legal scholarship have
‘Muslims known anything approximating consensus about the identity of
the People of the Book. There was even disagreement as to which specific
groups of Christians and Jews comprised the People of the Book. At vari-
‘ous times, Hindus, Buddhists, Zoroastrians, Magians and Sabeans were
included among or excluded from the People of the Book, depending on
the theological predilections of Muslim scholars and, perhaps more
importantly, the geo-political context wherein they lived.” In all of these
attempts to extend the boundaries of the qur’anic People of the Book,
Muslim scholars implicitly acknowledged the situation-bound nature of
the qur'anic categories.

A recognition of the need for solidarity between all oppressed people
in an unjust and exploitative society requires going beyond the situation-
bound categories of the Qur'an. This is not as radical an idea as it may
appear at first glance. The Qur'an, for example, makes frequent and
lengthy references to the munafiqun. This category, admittedly not a defi-
nite socio-religious grouping in the prophetic era, was, however, subse-
quently adopted by various protagonists in intra-Mustim polemics against
their opponents (al-Tabari 1879-1990, 2, p, 467). It remains, however, a
qur‘anic category which has been dropped in Muslim scholarly discourse
because it was so clearly situation bound. I do not wish to suggest that
there are no Christians who believe in the concept of a triune deity.
Justice, however, requires that no one be held captive to categories which
applied to a community or individuals fourteen centuries ago, merely
because they share a common descriptive term, a term that may even
have been imposed on them by Muslims and rejected by them. “These
fare a people who have passed on. They have what they eamed and you
shall have what you have earned’ (Qur'an 2:141)

‘There is another significant reason why the category of People of the
Book should be regarded as of dubious relevance in our world today, In
the context of the political and technological power exercised by the
Judaeo-Christian world, on the one hand, and Arab monetary wealth on
the other, Muslim rapprochement with that world, based on the simplistic
analogy that Jews and Christians are the contemporary People of the
Book, could easily, and probably correctly, be construed as an alliance of
the powerful. A qur’anic hermeneutic concerned with interreligious soli-
darity against injustice would seek to avoid such alliances and would
rather opt for more inclusive categories which would, for example,
embrace the dispossessed of the Fourth World.”

153

Liber

& Plurali

The Mushrikun

Initially referring to the Meccans who revered physical objects such as sculp-
tures or heavenly bodies as religiously sacred entities, the term mushrikun was
also employed to refer to the People of the Book by some Muslim jurists, Two
factors led to an early recognition that all mushnikun are not the same and were
not to be treated equally: 1) the qur'anic accusation of shirk against the People
of the Book (e.g, 9:31), while simultaneously regarding them as distinct from
the mushrikun and, 2) the subsequent wider Muslim contact with the world of
non-Islam. Later, as the Shorter Encyclopaedia of Islam observes,

in the course of the dogmatic development of Islam, the conception
of shirk received @ considerable extension [because] the adher-
ents of many sects had no compunction about reproaching their
Muslim opponents with shirk, as soon as they saw in them any
‘obscuring of monotheism, although only in some particular respect
‘emphasised by themselves... . Shirk has thus become, no longer sim-
ply a term for unbelief prevailing outside of Islam, but a reproach
hurled by one Muslim against another inside of Islam. (SEI, ‘shirk’)

‘As with the category of the People of the Book, here, too, one finds that the
actual application of the neat divisions has been far more problematic than
most traditional scholars are wont to admit. There is evidently a need to
rethink these categories and their contemporary applicability or otherwise, It
is now more apparent than ever that the religious situation of humankind
and the socio-political ramifications thereof are far more complex than pre-
viously understood. The following are but a few indications of this complex-
ity: 1) the emergence of the new religious movements in Japan and India for
example, where, in some cases, people claim to be both Christians and
pagans or Buddhist and Hindu Catholics respectively; 2) the situation in
large parts of Asia, Australia, Latin America and Africa, where people com-
bine a commitment to Islam, Christianity and even Judaism, with other tra-
ditional ‘pagan’ practices such as the veneration of graves, sacred relics and
invoking deceased ancestors for spiritual blessings or material gain and 3)
the systematic use of formal and institutional religion in the aforementioned
areas to oppress, exploit and even eliminate entire nations among the
indigenous people. In these situations, the marginalized and oppressed have
‘often resorted to their ancient religions as a means of asserting their human.
dignity. Like sazwhid, shirk had its implications in Meccan society and one
needs to retain a sense of this in a contemporary consideration of the
believers in zawhid as well as the mushriktn. Referring to the early qur’anic
texts, Rahman argues that they can only be understood against their

154

The Qur'an & the Other

‘Meccan background, ‘as a reaction against Meccan pagan idol-worship
and the great socio-economic disparity between the mercantile aristocracy
of Mecca and a large body of its distressed and disenfranchised popula-
tion’ (1982c, p. 1). "Both of these aspects’, he says ‘are so heavily empha-
sised in the Qur'an that they must have been organically connected with
each other’ (ibid.).

The Religious Other in the Qur'an

‘What is the Qur'an’s general attitude towards the religious Other, under-
pinning the more specific injunctions and doctrinal issues that it raises
from time to time?

Firstly, the Qur'an relates dogma to socio-economic exploitation. In
chapter 4 1 argued that the Qur'an insists on connecting orthodoxy with
orthopraxis. This is equally applicable to the communities and individu-
als, in Mecca as well as Medina, who rejected the Prophet's message of
tawhid and social justice. ‘The Qur'an makes it clear that it was the rejec~
tion and ignorance of tawhid that had led to social and economic oppres-
sion in Meccan society. The shorter Meccan chapters are particularly
poignant in the way this point is made.

‘Woe to those who defraud others; who, when they take measure
from people, take it fully

And when they measure out to others or weigh out for them, they
sive less than is due.

Do they not think that they will be raised again?

‘To a mighty day. The day when people will stand before the Lord of
the worlds...

‘Woe on that day unto the rejecters who give a lie to the Day of
Requital (83:1-11).

Similarly, chapter 102 insists that it is abundance of wealth which diverts
people from belief in God and the Day of Requital:
‘You are obsessed by greed for more and more until you go to your graves
Nay, in time you will come to understand . ..
‘You would most surely behold the blazing fire [of hell]

And on that Day you will most surely be called to account for what
you did with the boon of life!

155

& Plaralism

Chapter 104 links the illusionary power of amassed wealth with the
attempts to defame and slander the early Muslims in Mecca.

‘Woe unto every slanderer, fault finder!

‘Who amasses wealth and counts it a safeguard, thinking that his [or
her] wealth will make him [or her] live forever!

Nay, but [in the life to come such as} he [or she] shall indeed be
abandoned to crushing torment!

Chapter 90 asserts thar a denial of the presence of an all-powerful God
causes people to squander their wealth: ‘Does he think that no one has
power over him? He will say: I have spent abundant wealth’ (90:5-6).
Furthermore, this chapter links faith to an active social conscience: ‘to
free a slave’, ‘to feed on a day of hunger’ and ‘to exhort one another to
perseverance and to compassion’ (90:13-15). By implication, it also links
‘kufr to the refusal to display mercy towards others. In this text those who
reject ‘the signs of Allah’ are those whose actions do not correspond with
the actions of ones who have chosen to ‘ascend the steep path’, The
rejecters of ‘the signs of Allah’ are, therefore, those who deny mercy and
compassion. This linking of the rejection of God and din to the denial of
mercy and compassion is even more explicit in chapter 107.

Have you observed the one who belies al-din?

‘That is the one who is unkind to the orphan,
and urges not the feeding of the needy,

‘So, woe to the praying ones,
who are unmindful of their prayer,

They do good to be seen,
and refrain from acts of kindnesses,

‘The texts of opprobrium revealed in Medina, which relate to the various
Jewish and Christian communities and individuals encountered there by
the Prophet and the early Muslims, reveal a similar relationship between
‘erroneous' beliefs and the socio-economic exploitation of others. Equally
Significant is the fact that, although the Jews were closer to Muslims in
creed, the Qur'an often reserves the severest denunciation for some of
them, Similarly, the Sabeans were widely believed to have worshipped
Stars, even angels, yet they were included among the People of the Book
(al-Razi 1990, 3, p. 112-13). According to the Qur'an, the Jews and

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The Qur'an & the Other

Christians justified their exploitation of their own people by claiming that
their scriptures permitted such practices. The Qur’an denounced this
exploitation of the ignorance of ordinary illiterate people who had no
‘real knowledge of the Scriprures" (2:78) by the priests of the People of
the Book. The contempt for, and exploitation of, the marginalized by
some of the People of the Book is further seen in their justification, that
they had no moral obligation to be just towards the illiterate.

‘And among the People of the Book there is many a person who if
you entrust him [or her] with something of value, will faithfully
restore it to you; and there is among them many a person who, if you
entrust him [or her] with a tiny gold coin, will not restore it to you
unless you keep standing over him [or her]. This is because of their
assertion, ‘No blame can attach to us {for anything that we may do}
with regard to these unlettered folk and [so they lie about God],
being well aware. (3:75)

‘This text is immediately followed by a denunciation of those who ‘barter
away their bond with God and their pledges for a trifling gain’ (3:77) and
of ‘a section among them who distort their Scripture with their tongues,
0 as to make you think that it is from the Scripture while it is not’
(3:79). Thus, we see that while their bond and their pledges were with a
transcendent God, their crimes were very much about the exploitation of
the people of God. The Qur'an’s insistence on the links between erro~
neous teaching of the People of the Book and their exploitative practices
is also evident in the way these two accusations are fused in an interesting
text from the chapter titled "Repentance” (9:31-5)

‘They have taken their rabbis and their monks ~ as well as Christ, son
‘of Mary ~ for their lords beside God, although they have been bid-
den to Worship none but the One God, save whom there is no deity:
the one who is utterly remote, in His limitless glory, from anything
to which they may ascribe a share in His divinity!

‘They want to extinguish God’s guiding light with their utterances:
‘but God will not allow this {to pass } for He has willed to spread His
light in all is fullness

© you whe have attained unto faith! Behold, many of the rabbis and
monks do indeed wrongfully devour the possessions of others and
turn away from the path of God. But as for all who lay up treasures
of gold and silver and do not spend them for the sake of God ~ give
unto them the tiding of grievous suffering: on the day when that
[hoarded wealth} shall be heated in the fire of hell and the foreheads
and their sides and their backs branded therewith, “These are the

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treasures which you have 1si
evil] of your hoarded treasures!”

up for yourselves! Taste, then [the

Secondly, the Qur'an explicitly and unequivocally denounces the narrow
religious exclusivism which appears to have characterized the Jewish and
Christian communities encountered by Muhammad in Hijaz. The
Qur'an is relentless in its denunciation of the arrogance of Jewish reli-
gious figures and scathing of the tribal exclusivism that enabled them to
treat people outside their community, especially the weak and vulnerable,
with contempt. This contempt for other people, the Qur’an suggests, was
very much rooted in notions of being the chosen of God. According to
the Qur'an, many among the Jews and the Christians believed that they
were not like any other people whom God had created, that their
covenant with God had elevated their status with Him and that they were
now the ‘friends of Allah to the exclusion of other people” (62:6). The
Qur'an alleges that they claimed a privileged position with God merely by
calling themselves Jewish or Christian, In other words, it was a claim
based on history, birth and tribe rather than on praxis and mor
‘Thus, they claimed to be ‘the children of Allah and His beloved’ (5:18)
and ‘considered themselves pure’ (4:48) In response to these notions of
inherent ‘purity’, the Que’an argues, ‘Nay, but it is Allah who causes
whomsoever He wills to grow in purity; and none shall be wronged by
even a hair's breadth’ (5:49). The same text links these notions of being
God's favourites to their socio-economic implications and suggests that
this sense of having an exclusive share in God's dominion leads to greater
unwillingness to share wealth with others: "Have they perchance, a share
in Allah's dominion?" the Qur’an asks, and then asserts: ‘But [if they had]
lo, they would not give to other people as much as (would fill) the groove
of date stone!’ (4:53), Do they perchance, envy other people for what
Allah has granted them out of His bounty? And among them are such as
believe in Him and among them are such as have turned away’ [emphasis
mine] (4:55).

‘The Qur'an denounces the claims of some of the People of the Book
that the afterlife was only for them and ‘not for any other people’ (2:94,
111), that the fire (of hel!) would only touch them ‘for a limited numbered
days’ (3:24) and that “clutching at the fleeting good of this world will be
forgiven for us’ (7/169). The Qur'an, furthermore, takes a rather dim
view of the boasts of the Jews and Christians that their creeds were the
only ones of consequence. While the Qur'an does not accuse the
Christians of claiming to be free of any moral accountability in their

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The Qur’an & the Other

behaviour towards the non-Christians, they too, according to the Qur'an,
held that they were the beloved of God.

And they say: ‘None shall enter paradise unless he [or she] be a Jew
or a Christian’. Those are their vain desires. Say- ‘Produce your proof
if you are truthful." Nay, whoever submits his [or her] whole self to
Allah and is a doer of good, will get his {or her] reward with his [or
her] Lord; On such shall be ne fear nor shall they grieve. (5:18)

And the Jews say the Christians have nothing [credible] to stand on
and the Christians say the Jews have nothing to stand on while both
recite the Book. Even thus say those who have no knowledge. So
Allah will judge between them on the Day of Resurrection in that
wherein they differ. (2:111-13)

Attempts to appropriate the heritage of Abraham and make it the property
of a particular socio-religious group are also denounced: (3:69) ‘It is not
belonging to the community of Jews or Christians which leads to guid-
lance, but the straight path of Abraham (2:135). Abraham ‘was neither a
Jew nor a Christian, but an upright person who submitted to Allah’ (3:67).

‘Thirdly, the Qur'an is explicit in its acceptance of religious pluralism.
Having derided the petty attempts to appropriate God, it is inconceivable
that the Qur'an should itself engage in this, The notion that Abraham was
not a Jew or a Christian, but ‘one of us’ (i.e., a Muslim) is ac variance with
the rejection of all exclusivist claims in these texts. For the qur’anic mes-
suge to be an alternative one, it had to offer the vision of a God who
responds to all humankind and who acknowledges the sincerity and right-
cousness of all believers. The Qur'an, thus, makes it a condition of faith to
believe in the genuineness of all revealed religion (2:136; 2:285; 3:84).

The Qur'an acknowledges the de jure legitimacy of all revealed reli-
gion in two respects: it takes into account the religious life of separate
communities coexisting with Muslims, respecting their laws, social norms
and religious practices and it accepts that the faithful adherents of these
religions will also attain salvation and that ‘no fear shall come upon them
neither will they grieve” (2:62). These two aspects of the Qur'an’s atti-
tude towards the Other may be described as the cornerstones of its
acceptance of religious pluralism. Given the widespread acceptance,
among the most conservative Muslims, of respect for the laws of the reli-
gious Other, even if only in theory, and the equally widespread rejection
of their salvation, T want to focus on the latter.

‘The Qur'an specifically recognizes the People of the Book as legiti-
mate socio-religious communities. This recognition was later extended by

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alism

Muslim scholars to various other religious communities living within the
borders of the expanding Islamic domain. The explicit details, restric-
tions and application of this recognition throughout the various stages of
the prophetic era, and subsequently in Islamic history, point to a signifi-
cant issue in dealing with the Other. The socio-religious requirements of
the Muslim community, such as community building and security, rather
than the faith convictions, or lack thereof in these other communities,
shaped the Qur’an’s attitude towards them,

‘There are a number of indications in the Qur'an of the essential legit-
imacy of the religious Other. Firstly, the People of the Book, as recipients
of divine revelation, were recognized as part of the community.
Addressing all the prophets, the Qur'an says, ‘And surely this, your com-
munity (wmnah), is a single community’ (23:52)." The establishment of
a single community with diverse religious expressions was explicit in the
Charter of Medina. Secondly, in two of the most significant social areas,
food and marriage, the generosity of the qur’anic spirit is evident: the
food of ‘those who were given the Book’ was declared lawful for the
Muslims and the food of the Muslims lawful for them (5:5). Likewise,
‘Muslim men were permitted to marry ‘the chaste women of the People of
the Book’ (5:5). If Muslims were to be allowed to coexist with others in a
relationship as intimate as that of marriage, then this seems to indicate
quite explicitly that enmity is not to be regarded as the norm in
‘Muslim-Other relations. Interestingly, this text mentions believing
women in the same manner as the women of the People of the Book:
“{permissible in marriage] are the virtuous women of the believers and
the virtuous women of those who received the Scripture before you’
(5:5). The restriction of the permission to the women of the People of the
Book indicates that this ruling related to the social dynamics of early
Muslim society and the need for community cohesion. The fact that most
jurists, while agreeing on marriage to women of the People of the Book,
who are also the people of Dhimmah, differ as to whether it is permissible
if they are from states hostile to Istam, also reflects this point (al-Tabari
1954, 5, pp. 212-14). Thirdly, in the area of religious law, the norms and
regulations of the Jews and of the Christians were upheld (5:47) and even
enforced by the Prophet when he was called upon to settle disputes
among them (5:42-3). Fourthly, the sanctity of the religious life of the
adherents of other revealed religions is underlined by the fact that the
first time permission for the armed struggle was given, was to ensure the
preservation of this sanctity; “But for the fact that God continues to repel
some people by means of others, cloisters, churches, synagogues and

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The Qurvan & the Other

‘mosques, {all places} wherein the name of Ged is mentioned, would be
razed to the ground’ (22:40).

‘The qur'anic recognition of religious pluralism is evident not only
from the acceptance of the Other as legitimate socio-religious communi-
ties but also from an acceptance of the spirituality of the Other and salva-
tion through that Otherness. The preservation of the sanctity of places of
worship was thus not merely in order to preserve the integrity of a multi-
religious society, as contemporary states may want to protect places of
worship because of the role they play in the culture of a particular people,
Rather, it was because God, who represented the ultimate for many of
these religions, and who is acknowledged to be above the diverse outward
expressions of that service, was being worshipped in them. That there
were people in other faiths who sincerely recognized and served God is
made even more explicit in Qur'an 4:113: "Not all of them are alike;
among them is a group who stand for the right and keep nights reciting
the words of Allah and prostrate themselves in adoration before Him.
‘They have faith in Allah and in the Last Day; they enjoin what is good
and forbid what is wrong, and vie one with another in good deeds. And
those are among the righteous’. If the Qur'an is to be the word of a just
God, as Muslims sincerely believe, then there is no alternative to the
recognition of the sincerity and righteous deeds of others, and their rec~
ompense on the Day of Requital. Thus, the Qur'an says:

And of the People of the Book there are those who have faith in
Allah and in that which has been revealed to you and in that which
has been revealed to them, humbling themselves before Allah, they
take not a small price for the messages of Allah. ‘They have their
reward with their Lord. Surely Allah is swift to take account, (3:198)

And whatever good they do, they will not be denied it, And Allah
knows those who keep their duty. (3:112-14)

From Where Then the Image of Religious Arrogance?

Why did this inclusivism and, indeed, justice, not become the predomi-
nant trait of the Islamic theological sppraisal of the Other and Otherness?
‘The ideal answer to this question would require an examination of the
historical development of Islamic theology and the history of Islam’s
encounter with the Other as a whole, I shall, however, confine myself to
looking at the arguments that traditional exegesis employed to circumvent
the obvious meaning of inclusiveness in qur’anic texts, and to reflecting
on the alternative opinions provided by some more contemporary

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exegetes. The following is one of the two texts that are most explicit
about the legitimacy of religious diversity:

Surely those who have faith and those who are Jews and the
Christians and the Sabeans, whoever has faith in Allah and the Last
Day and does good, they have their reward with their Lord, there is
no fear for them, nor shall they grieve. (2:62)

‘Most of the exegetes exercise themselves to no avail to avoid the explicit
meaning of these texts, i.¢., that anyone who has faith in God and the
Last Day and who acts in a righteous manner will attain salvation, This
refusal to recognize the efficacy of all religious paths to salvation after the
coming of Muhammad is argued on the basis of the doctrine of superces-
sionism. According to this doctrine ‘any given religious dispensation
remains valid until the coming of the one to succeed it; then the new dis-
pensation abrogates the previous one” (Ayoub 1989, p. 27). Those who
heard of the message of Moses were thus obliged to believe in it and to
follow the Torah until the coming of Jesus, whose message superseded
that of Moses until the coming of Muhammad, when the final form of
faith was irrevocably determined.”

There are two ways in which the majority of scholars have
approached this text to circumvent the more apparent meaning. It was
argued that 2:62 had subsequently been abrogated by 3:85, ‘Whosoever
desires a din other than islam shall not have it accepted from him [or
her).” This is a very significant opinion attributed to Ibn ‘Abbas and ‘a
group among the exegetes’ by al“Tabari (1954, 1, p. 323)." Some of the
exegetes whose works are under consideration here cither rejected this
opinion or ignored it. Those who rejected it argued that the idea of God
abrogating a promise militates against His justice and that, being God,
He will not fail to uphold a promise. The abrogation theory would have
been the easiest avenue to obtain the much desired exclusivist interpreta-
tion. However, with the case against it rather apparent, the exegetes had
little option but to resort to some creative and often contradictory exeget-
ical devices to secure damnation for the Christians, Jews and Sabeans,

Given their assumption that salvation is confined to those who have
faith in and followed Muhammad as a prophet, the text presented two
significant problems to these exegetes. The first problem was the inclu-
sion of ‘those who have faith” alongside the Other and the second one
was the qualifying phrase ‘whosoever have faith among them,’ which
seemed to imply that ‘faith’ is used in a different sense from that
employed in the first descriptive phrase, ‘those who have faith’.

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The Qur'an & the Other

Al-Zamakhshari, along with several others," dealt with the first
problem by redefining ‘those who have faith’ in a manner that equalizes
the four categor in ‘falsehood’. “They are the ones’, Al-Zamakhshari
wrote, ‘who believe with their tongues without their hearts agreeing’,
i.e., the hypocrites (n.d., 1, p. 146). “Whosoever among these rejecters/
deniers acquires a pure faith and genuinely enters into the community
of Islam will have no fear come upon them, neither will they grieve’
(ibid.). Al-Tabari defines ‘those who have faith’ in this text as ‘the ones
who accept what the Messenger of Allah brought them of Allah’s truth”
(1954, 1, p. 317) and then proceeds to distinguish between the applica~
tion of the phrase ‘whoever among them who has faith’ to this category,
and the following three. According to him, when the phrase ‘whoever
among them has faith’ is applied to ‘those who have faith’ then it means
‘remaining committed to that faith and not changing’. In the case of the
Christians, Jews and Sabeans, however, he argues that it means ‘coming
to belief, i.e. entering Islam’ (it Pp. 320-1). The view that the
acceptable Other refers to converts from other religions, the most com-
mon view in qur’anic exegesis, is regularly applied to virtually all of
those texts that distinguish between the Others who remained rejected
by God and those who were acceptable and to whom salvation was
promised.”

Exegetical Difficulties
Criticism of the abrogation theory, regarding God reneging on a promise
or causing a past generation to suffer for the intransigence or disbelief of a
present generation, is clear. Furthermore, the following text (Qur'an
3:85), the supposedly abrogating text, is no less inclusive than Qur'an
2:62, discussed on page 162, which is supposed to have been abrogated,
‘If one goes in search of a religion other than self-surrender unto God
[Asad’s rendition of islam, it will never be accepted from him for her] and
in the life to come he (or she} shall be among the lost’ (3:95). What is sig-
nificant about this opinion is that Tbn ‘Abbas and ‘a group among the
exegetes’ actually held the opinion that this verse, at an earlier stage, did
offer salvation to groups outside the community of Muslims. Ibn “Abbas is
one of the earliest commentators of the Qur’an. It was only much later,
when the exegetes had recourse to more sophisticated exegetical devices,
that alternatives to this theory became possible in order to secure exclu-
sion from salvation for the Other.

‘The interpretation offered by al-Zamakhshari that ‘those who have
faith’ is actually a reference to the hypocrites, arbitrarily imputes an

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antithetical meaning to the phrase, without any theological or linguistic
support. This is hardly conducive to understanding any text. The chaos
in interpretation that must inevitably come from this kind of device, no
matter how illustrious the exegete, has serious implications for any
attempt to understand the Speech of God. Whenever the Qur'an uses the
word iman with reference to the hypocrites, it does so with the word g-t~!
or variants thereof, meaning that they only say or claim that they believe
(2:8, 14, 86; 3:1195 5:41, 61). Finally, throughout the Qur'an the expres-
sion ‘those who have attained to faith/conviction’ is used 239 times explicit-
ly in the sense of ‘those who have faith’. The case for a single exception to
all of these with the effect of rendering an opposite meaning, requires a
more significant explanation than has been provided

‘Then there is the theory that the Jews, Christians and Sabeans men-
tioned in this verse are those who actually converted to Islam. In a sense,
the entire early Muslim community were ‘converts’ to Islam, although
the term seems to be uncommon in early Islamic literature. It is, howev-
er, possible that, as the community acquired a settled character, new
entrants were known or even referred to as ‘new Muslims’, Such a term
was indeed in use, maslamah, and is employed by al-Tabari (1954, 7, p.
498) and al-Zamakhshari (n.d., 1, p. 459) in this context (maslamah aht
al-kitab). The
socio-religious category apart from the earlier Muslims, which would
have warranted their exclusion from the category of ‘tho:
faith,’ or that the terms ‘new Muslims’ or ‘converts! were widely used. On

is, however, no indication that these converts existed as a

who have

the contrary, the serious attempts to cement the Exile-Helper link as well
as various other tribal links, would indicate that Muhammad would not
Muslim category, In
the very unlikely event that these new Muslims were regarded, even if

have brooked the formation of yet another int

only occasionally, as a sub-category of the ‘believers’, then it would
have been far more plausible to refer to them as such in a text promis-
ing salvation.

More significant though, is the fact that the converts are already
included in the first category and there is no convincing need to single
have been any
doubt regarding the salvation of these new Muslims who, as Christians or

them out as Jews, Christians and Sabeans. Nor could the

Jews before embracing Islam, were certainly closer in faith to ‘those who
have faith’ than a mushrik. If the erstwhile mushrikun were eligible for sal-
vation upon embracing Islam, then there could have been no doubt
about the salvation of the Jews or Christians who did so.

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The Qur'an & the Other

Allis Not Lost!

Rashid Rida pays considerable attention to the inclusivist meaning of
these texts, cites supportive texts, deals at length with the question of
salvation for those who did not encounter a prophet, or receive his or
her message, and even reflects on the necessity or otherwise of believing
in the prophethood of Muhammad as a condition of salvation, Rida
interprets ‘those who have faith’ as ‘those Muslims who followed
Muhammad during his lifetime and all those who follow him until the
Day of Resurrection’. He says that ‘whosoever among them who has
faith’ is a specification of the other three groups mentioned, i¢., those
among the Jews, Christians and Sabeans who believe with a ‘correct
faith’ (1980, 1, p. 336).

Al-Tabataba’i recognizes the idea of ‘those who have faith’ as a
description of a socio-historico-religious group, like the other three, and
not only of a group of people for whom faith is always a vibrant and
growing personal quest. “The context of the phrase “whosoever believes
in Allah”*, he says, “shows that it refers to genuine faith and that the
phrase “those who have faith”, refers to those who call themselves
Muslims’ (1973, 1, p. 193)

Both conclude on a similar note: all those who have faith in God and
act righteously, regardless of formal religious affiliation, will be saved ‘for
Allah does not favour one group while mistreating another’ (Rida 1980,
1, p. 336). ‘No name, no adjective’, says al-Tabataba’i, ‘can do any good
unless it is backed by faith and righteous deeds. This rule is applicable to
all human beings’ (1973, 1, p. 193). Both Rida and al-Tabataba’i view
these texts as a response to the exclusivism invoked by those, including
Muslims, steeped in sectarianism and narrow religious chauvinism,
‘Salvation’, Rida wrote, ‘is not to be found in religious sectarianism but
in true belief and righteous conduct. Muslim, Jewish or Christian aspira-
tions to religious importance are of no consequence to Allah, nor are they the
basis upon which judgements are made’ (1980, 1, p. 336).

In an interesting contextualizing of Qur'an 2:62, Rida seems to
acknowledge Jews, Christians and Sabeans as “believers’. He views the
message of this verse as a repetition of an earlier promise in this chapter
(‘those who follow My guidance will have no fear neither shall they
grieve’, 2:38) and an anticipation of a similar promise that follows in
4:123-4, which clearly refers to being a mu win as a condition of salvation.
‘It will not be accordance with your vain desires nor the vain desires of
the People of the Book. Whoever does evil, will be requited for it and he

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Qurtan, Liberation & Pluralism

[or she] will not find for him|self or herself] besides Allah a friend or a
helper. And whoever does good deeds whether male or female and he [or
she] is a mu’min will enter the Garden and they shall not be dealt with
unjustly* (4:123—4),

Al-Tabataba’i refers to Qur'an 2:111, saying that ‘the only criterion,
the only standard, of honour, happiness is the real belief in Allah and
the Day of Resurrection, accompanied by righteous conduct’ (1973, 1,
p. 193). The position taken by Rida and al-Tabataba'i regarding the
validity of other religious paths is consistent with the universal ethos of
the Qur'an and the meaning of the texts under discussion. This inter-
pretation is borne out by reflections on the Qur’an’s attitude towards
the fact of religious diversity.

The Qur’anic Response to Religious Diversity

In chapter 4 the meaning of din in the context of islam was discussed.

Some brief comments regarding the unity of din are appropriate here,
before reflecting on a text that opens up the discussion of the relationship
between din and shari‘ah, incorporating the ides of ‘competing in right-
eousness’ as a reason for both religious diversity and for referring to God
the ultimate questions regarding this diversity.

The Qur'an regards Muhammad as one of a galaxy of prophets,
some of whom are mentioned specifically in the Qur'an while ‘others you
do not know’ (40:78). The same din, the Qur'an declares, ‘was enjoined
on Noah, Abraham, Moses and Jesus’ (42:13) *You are but a wamer’,
the Qur’an tells Muhammad, ‘and every people has had its guide’ (13:08,
see also 16:36 and 35:24). The fact that the Qur'an incorporates
accounts of the lives of these predecessors of Muhammad and makes it
Part of its own history is perhaps the most significant reflection of its

emphasis on the unity of din. These prophets came with identical mes-
sages which they preached within the context of the various and differing
situations of their people. Basically, they came to reawaken the commit-
ment of people to tawhid, to remind them about the ultimate account-
ability to God and to establish justice. ‘And for every ummah there is a
messenger. So when their messenger comes the matter is decided
between them with justice, and they will not be wronged’ (10:47)

‘The Qur’an declares that ‘unto every one of you have We appointed
a [different] shir'ah (path) and minhaj (way)’ (5:48).'" In a similar vein, it
says: "To every community, We appointed acts of devotion, which they
observe; so let them not dispute with you in the matter, and call co your
Lord. Surely you are on a right guidance (22:67), Since the views of the

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The Qur'an & the Other

respective exegetes on 22:67 are likely to agree with their views on 5:48
on the principal issue of the validity of various religious forms in the
‘Muhammadan and post-Muhammadan eras, this discussion will be con-
fined to 5:48. The interpretations of this text also contain fairly lengthy
discussions on the differences between din and shari‘ah.

‘We have revealed to you the Book with the truth, verifying that
which is before it of the Book and a guardian over it. So judge
between them by what Allah has revealed and follow not their
desires, (numing away] from the truth that has come unto you. For
every one of you we have appointed a shir‘ah and a minhaj. And if
Allah had pleased, He would have made you a single ummah, but
that He might try you in what He gave you. So vie with one another
in virtuous deeds. To Allah you will all return, so that He will inform
you of that wherein you differed. (5:48)

‘Most of the exegetes have interpreted shir‘ah as shani‘ah and minhaj as a
‘clear path’ . Both al-Razi and Rida have elaborated on the etymological
meaning of shir‘ah and shari‘ah: ‘In the literal sense it is a path to the
water or the source of water for the river or its like’, From the Qur'an
itself and the various interpretations of shari'ah, din and the differences
between them, it is evident that the former is exclusive while the latter
pertains to particular communities, as al-Tabataba’i's commentary on
this verse makes clear: ‘Shari'ah is a path for a community among com-
munities or a Prophet among Prophets who was sent with it... Din isa
pattern, a divine and general path for all communities. Thus, shari‘ah is
amenable to abrogation while this is not the case with din in its broad
sense’ (1973, 5, p. 350).

Rida compares the various shari‘ahs ‘which can abrogate’ one another
to din, ‘which is one’ (1980, 5, p. 351). He then compares this relation-
ship to that of the specific injunctions in the shari'ah of reified Islam,
‘where one finds the abroguting verse and abrogated ones, to reified
Islam itself” (ibid., 5, p. 351). This, he suggests, is ‘because Allah does
not wish to impose on His servants anything other than a single din which
is [non-reified] islam’ (ibid,). ‘In order for them to attain this [diversity in
a single din]', Rida says, God "has charted different paths and ways
depending on their differing capacities . . . Thus, He says “If Allah had so
(5:351] (ibid.)
‘This comparison of the intra-religious abrogation to interreligious super-
cessionism seemingly supports the view that the appearance of Islam
nullifies the religious paths that preceded it, and now live alongside

willed, He would have made you a single community”

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+ Liberation & Pluralism

‘Yet this is not Rida’s opinion in his views on the question of whom this
text addresses. This question is obviously significant in interpreting the
text's meaning: addressing a vague historical humankind, rather than a
contemporary community sharing the same geographical space and time
with the Muslims in Medina, would put an entirely different complexion
on to it. Unsurprisingly, and despite the immense exegetical difficulties
involved, most of the exegetes suggest that this verse addresses the com-
munities of earlier prophets (al-Tabari 1954, 6, p. 272; al-Razi 1990, 12,
p. 14). ‘The reference here’ (i.¢., 5:48), al-Tabari says, is ‘to every
Prophet who had actually passed away and their communities which pre~
ceded our Prophet, whereas he is the only person being addressed.
Although the addressee is the Prophet, the intention is to convey an
account of the Prophets who preceded him and their communities’
(1954, 6, p. 272)

Aware that this contradicts the apparent meaning of the text, al-
‘Tabari explains that ‘it was customary among the Arabs that when a per-
son with an absentee attached to him was addressed with the intention of
saying something about the absentee, then the addressee would be
focused on, In this manner information about both is conveyed’ (ibid)
Rida prefers the obvious meaning, i.c., that it refers to the Muslims, the
People of the Book and to humankind in general (1980, 1, p. 413). This
inclusivism is reflected in his interpretation of the text: "We have made

for everyone a shari‘ah .. . and path for guidance. We have imposed
upon them its paths for the purification of their souls and their reforma-
tion, because the paths based on knowledge and the paths of spiritual
cultivation vary with the differences in society and the human potential’
(ibid., 6, p. 413). Viewing the deceased adherents of supposedly abrogat-
ed shani‘ahs as the addressees of this text dispensed with the need for any
detailed discussion of the text itself or its implications for religious plural-
ism, ‘The traditional interpretations of the text present several difficulties
and are evidently inconsistent with both its context and apparent mean-
ing. These difficulties compel me to choose an alternative, inclusivist,
interpretation.

1, The entire qur'anic discussion, including the preceding sentences of
5:48 and the subsequent verse, refers to the relationship between the
Prophet as arbitrator in an actual community. The context of this text
makes it plain that other religious communities coexisting with the

community

existing in a non-physical world or in a different historical context.

Muslims in Medina are addressed, not an ahistoric:

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The Qur'sn & the Other

2. The text under discussion, 5:48, says that, upon returning to God,
‘He will inform you of that wherein you differed’. If one supposes that
this text refers to the pre-Muhammadan communities whose paths
are acknowledged as valid, pure and divinely ordained for a specified
period, as the doctrine of supercessionism holds, then there is no
question of the Muhammadan community differing with them, nor a
need for information regarding the differences.

3. The text asks that the response to this diversity be to compete with
each other in righteous deeds. Given that any kind of meaningful
competition can only be engaged in by contemporancous communi-
ties who share similar advantages or disadvantages, one can only
assume that the partners of these Mustims were to be those Others
who lived alongside them.

In the light of these points, the text can best be understood as follows.
One observes that it comes towards the end of a fairly lengthy discourse
on the significance of specific scriptures for specific communities. Qur'an
5:44-5 deals with the Torah, which has “guidance and light’, ‘should not
be sold for a trivial price’, and those Jews who do not judge by its injunc-
tions are denounced as ‘ingrates’ and ‘wrongdoervoppressors’.” This is
followed by 5:46-7 which describes the revelations to Jesus Christ in sim-
ilar terms (‘a light and guidance and an admonition for those who keep
their duty") and @ denunciation of the followers of Christ who do not
judge by their standards as ‘transgressors’ (see also 7:170). It is at the
end of this chronological discourse on the significance and importance of
adhering to revealed scripture that the text "To each of you we have given
a “path and and a way"* appears. Given this context of recognizing the
authenticity of the scriptures of the Other, it follows that the text refers to
the paths of the religious Other in a similar vein

As for its meaning, the essence of this text is located in the words
shir‘ah and minhaj; both relating to ‘a path’. While paths must be clear,
comfortable, scenic and even, at times, a part of one’s goal, they are

never synonymous with it. The word shari‘ah and its variants appear only
three times in the Qur'an; the word Allah approximately three thousand
times. Hassan Askari, referring to the question of religious pluralism, asks
“How may it be that the One and Transcendent, the Creator and
Almighty is equated with the form of one religious belief or practice? And
if we equate thus, we make a God out of that religion, whereas we are all
called upon to say: “There is no deity except God” (1986, p. 322). The
text thus means that God has determined a path for all people, both as

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Qur'an. Liberation & Pluralism

individuals and as religious communities; that one should be true to the
path determined for one. Furthermore, should it be so covered by cob-
‘webs that it is no longer possible for one to move along it, then one is free
to choose another of the paths determined by God, The purpose is to vie
with one another in righteousness towards God.

The text discussed here (5:48) is one of wo that specifically employ
the metaphor of competition. Both appear in a Medinan context of the
Prophet engaging the People of the Book. The second reads as follows:

‘And each one has a goal towards which he [or she] strives/direction
to which he [or she} tums) [li kulli wiphah hutwa muwalliha); $0 com-
pete with one another in righteous deeds, Wherever you are, Allah will
bbring you all together. Surely Allah is able to do all things. (2:148)

While the phrase likulli wijhah hutca muccalliha is open to both the senses
given in this translation, the context of this text would suggest that its
focus is narrower than the advocates of religious pluralism may want to
believe, i.e. the second translation “direction to which he turns’ is more
appropriate. Commenting on this verse, al-Razi quotes Hassan al-Basri as
saying that wijhah refers to shir‘ah and minhaj. He adds that the verse
‘would then mean that the phenomenon of a variety of shari‘ahs has its
virtues. ‘Undoubtedly shari‘ahs differ in terms of the varieties of people as
they vary with the different personalities. It is thus not far-fetched that
they should differ with the passing of time with reference to one person

‘This is why the idea of naskh (abrogation) and change is correct’ (al-Razi
1990, 4, p. 145)
Al-Zamakhshari says that the phrase refers to the different directions

4 person faces to pray in the other religions and that the challenge to the
Muslims is to compete with the Other (n.d,, 1, p, 205), Al-Tabataba’i
says that since there is ‘nothing inherently reverential about directions of
prayer... one should not waste one’s time and energy in disputation and
argumentation about it’ (1973, 1, p. 327),

Given that Qur'an 5:48 is explicit in its reference to various shari"ahs

and minhaj, 1 briefly return to some exegetical comments on this verse.
‘The idea of competing in righteousness that it expresses is also evident in
‘abari interprets this
righteous deeds, and attachment to

the verse presently under discussion (2:148). Al

text to mean; "Hasten, O people,
your Lord by fulfilling the dutics in the Book revealed by Him unto your
Prophet. He has revealed it in order to test you so that the virtuous may
become obvious from the sinner’ (1954, 6, p.

Both al-Razi and al-Zamakhshari offer so

¢ brief comments,

ying

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The Qo

n & the Other

that the testing refers to the diverse shari“ahs, i.e. ‘whether we acted
upon it obeying Allah or pursued doubts and half-hearted righteous-
ness’ (al-Razi 1990, 14, p. 15; al-Zamakhshari n.d., 1, p. 640).
Seemingly to counterbalance his ideas on the validity of religious plu-
ralism, Rida introduces his views on competing in goodness with a
lengthy discussion on the supposed unsuitability of both the ‘stagnant
legal severity of Judaism . . . [and] the legal leniency . . . spiritual
excesses . . . and acquiescence to worldly power’ (1980, 6, p. 418) of
Christianity. He then contrasts this with the supposed supremacy of a
moderate and dynamic Islam. Finally, he says:

‘What is wrong with you . . . that you look at dim in terms of what
divides and disperses, ignoring the wisdom of diversity and the
objectives of din and shari‘ah, Isn't this a departure from guidance
and pursuing your own fancy . . . You have to make the shari‘ahs
cause of competition in goodness not a cause for enmity and com-
peting in prejudice. (Ibid.)

While al-Tabataba’i suggests that the challenge to compete in righteous
ness is directed to the Muslims, he nevertheless concludes that they
should not occupy themselves with these differences (1973, 5, p. 353).

‘What is evident from these examples is that the metaphor of compe-
tition in righteousness is not regarded seriously in exegesis.” While none
of the exegetes whose works are under perusal explicitly excludes the
Other, it is only Rida and al-Tabataba'i, the latter by implication, who
include the Other. The inclusion of the Other, from the context of the
text, however, is inescapable. The challenge to competition is immediately
preceded by a statement on the diversity of religious paths: ‘And if God had
pleased He would have made you a single ummah. However He desires to
try you in what He gave you. So vie with one another in righteous deeds.”

Given that this competing in righteousness is between diverse com-
munities, several implications follow. Firstly, righteous deeds that are
recognized and rewarded, are not the monopoly of any single competitor,
as the Qur'an says: ‘O humankind, We have created you from one male
and female. We have made of you tribes and nations so that you may
know one another. In the eyes of God, the noblest among you is the one
who is most virtuous’ (49:13). Secondly, the judge, God, has to be above
the narrow interests of the participants. Thirdly, claims of familiarity with
the judge or mere identification with any particular team will not avail the
participants, Fourthly, the results of any just competition are never fore-
gone conclusions.

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Liberation & Pluralism

‘The Qur'an makes several references to the theological difficulties of
religious pluralism and of kufr. If God is One and if din originates with
Him, why is it that humankind is not truly united in belief? Why do some
people persist in rejection when ‘the truth is clearly distinguished from
falsehood’ (2:256; 23:90)? Why does God not ‘will’ faith for everyone?
‘These were some of the questions that appear to have vexed Muhammad
and the early Muslims. In response to these, several texts urge an attitude
of patience and humility; these questions are to be left to God who will
inform humankind about them on the Day of Requital. In addition to the
text under discussion (5:48), which addresses the people who have a

shit‘ah and minhaj, saying “unto God you will return, so that He will
inform you of that wherein you differed’, the following text also conveys
the call to patience and humility:

Will you dispute with us about God, while He is our Lord and your
Lord? And we are to be rewarded for our deeds and you for your
deeds? (2:139)

God is your Lord and our Lord: Unto us our works and unto you
your works; let there be no dispute between you and us. God will
bring us together and to Him we shall return. (42:15; 2:139)

As for those who persist in Afr, the Qur'an says;

If your Lord had willed, all those on earth would have believed
together. Would you then compel people to become believers?
(10:99)

If God had so wanted, He could have made them a single people
Bot He admits whom He wills to His grace and, for the wrongdoers
there will be no protector nor helper, (42:8

Revile not those unto whom they pray besides God, lest they wrong-
fully revile God through ignorance. Thus, unto every wmmah have
we made their deeds seem fair. Then unto their Lord is their return,
and He will tell them what they used to do. (6:108)

The Prophetic Responsibility

If, as 1 have argued above, the Qur'an acknowledges the fact of religious
diversity as the will of God, then a significant question that arises is that
of Muhammad’s responsibility to the adherents of other faiths. Rahman
cribed the qur’anic position regarding this relationship as
“somewhat ambiguous’ (1982c, p. 5). From the Qur'an it would appear

has correctly de

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The Qur'an & the Other

as if the fundamental prophetic responsibility was twofold. Firstly, with
regard to those who viewed themselves as communities adhering to a
divine scripture, it was to challenge them about their commitment to
their own traditions and their deviation from them. Secondly, with
regard to all of humankind, it was to present the Qur’an’s own guidance
for consideration and acceptance. There are two ways of approaching
this ambiguity. One way is to relate the first responsibility to the second
one, for they are not entirely divorced from each other, and the other is
to understand the context of different responsibilities and their applica-
bility to specific components of the Other, at specific junctures in the
relationship with the Other.

The qur’anic challenge to the exclusivist claims of the People of the
Book has been discussed carlier in this chapter. At other times, various
groups and individuals, among the People of the Book in particular, were
challenged by Muhammad regarding their rejection of the signs of God
(3:70-1; 3:98), their discouraging of others to walk the path of God,
(3:98-9) and their knowingly covering the truth with falsehood (3:70;
3:98-9), Muhammad, as indicated earlier, was expected to challenge
them regarding their commitment to their own scriptures (5:68), their

deviation from these, and their distortion thereof. Muslim scholarship has
largely argued that, given this distortion, nothing in the scriprures has
remained valid. In dealing with the quranic references to the truth con-
tained in these scriptures and exhortations to the People of the Book to
uphold it, Muslim scholars have limited this obedience to the scripture to
those texts which putatively predict Muhammad’s prophethood.
Notwithstanding this recognition of the legitimacy of the Other revealed
scriptures, Muhammad is still asked to proclaim: ‘O humankind! I am a
Messenger of God unto all of you’ (7:158). Muhammad thus had a task of
proclaiming and calling in addition to that of challenging (1.6:125; 22:67),
On the face of it, these seem to be a set of contradictory responsibili-
ties for, if a text is distorted, how can one ask for adherence to it? In the
second responsibility, that of inviting, the question arises regarding the
purpose of inviting to one’s own path if that of the Other is also authen-
tic, Firstly, the problem of the authenticity of texts as against their being
distorted and, therefore, invalid, only arises if one thinks in terms of a
singularly homogeneous and unchanging entity called ‘the People of the
Book’ and all qur’anic references to it divested of contextuality. It has
been shown above that this is not the case. The Qur'an itself is silent
about the extent and nature of this distortion and castigates ‘a section of
the People of the Book’. As indicated on pages 158-61, the uniformity of

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Qurvan, Liberation & Pluralism

praise or blame for a particular religious group is contrary to the pattern
of the Qur'an. It is thus possible that the references to the authenticity of
their scriptures refer to those held by the rest. Indeed, even the qur'anic
denunciation of particular doctrinal ‘errors’ is not uniform in tone, indi-
cating thereby either a particular moment in the Muslim encounter with
the Other, or different components of the Other with specific nuances to
those ‘errors’. Secondly, Muhammad's basic responsibility in inviting was
to call to God, For some components of the Other, the response to this
call was best fulfilled by a commitment to Islam, Thus they were also
invited to become Muslims. For others, the call was limited to islam. The
invitation to the delegation of Najran is one such example when, after
they declined to enter into Islam they were invited to ‘come to a word
equal between us and you that we worship none but God, nor will we
take from our ranks anyone as deities’ (3:64). The Qur'an, thus, is
explicit only about inviting to God and to the ‘path of God’, In the fol-
lowing text, for example, the instruction to invite people to God comes
after an affirmation of the diversi

of religious paths. Here again one sees
the imperative of inviting to God, who is above the diverse paths emanat-
ing from Him.

Unto every community have we appointed [different] ways of wor-
ship, which they ought to observe. Hence, do not let those (who fol-
low ways other than yours} draw you into disputes on this score, but
summon (them all} unto your Sustainer: for, behold, you are indeed
on the right way. And if they try to argue with you, say (only}: God
knows best what you are doing.

[For, indeed,] God will judge between you {all] on Resurrection Day
‘with regard to all on which you were wont to differ. (22:67

Conclusion: The Pre-Eminence of Pluralism

‘The basis for the recognition of the religious Other was clearly not the
acceptance of reified Islam and Muhammad's prophethood with all its
implications; nor was it the absence of any principles. The fact that it was
Muhammad and the Muslims who defined the basis of coexistence, and
for which
community, clearly implies a qur'anic insistence on an ideological leader-
ship role for itself. It was explicit in the qur’anic approach to relationships
with other religious groups. It is a significant departure from the liberal
position, which equates coexistence, and freedom with absolute equality
for all. A fundamental question arises here: how is this qur‘anic position

who determined which form of submission was appropria

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The Qur'an & the Other

compatible with pluralism and justice?

It has already been indicated in chapter 4 that the pre-eminence of
the righteous does not mean a position of permanent socio-religious
superiority for the Muslim community. The Muslims as a social entity
were not superior to the Other, for such a position would have placed
them and their parochial God in the same category as others who were
denounced in the Qur'an for the crimes of arrogance and desiring to
appropriate God for a narrow community. The qur'anic reprimand to
other communities is that they cannot base their claims to superiority on
the achievements of their forebears: “That is a community that is bygone;
to them belongs what they eared and to you belong what you earn, and
you will not be asked about what they had done’ (2:134). There is no
reason to suppose that this should not be applied to the post-
Muhammadan Muslim community

Furthermore, the Qur'an does not regard all people and their ideas as
equal, but proceeds from the premise that the idea of inclusiveness is
superior to that of exclusiveness. In this sense, the advocates of pluralism
had to be ‘above’ those who insisted that the religious expressions of oth-
ers counted for nothing and that theirs was the only way to attain salva-
tion, The relationship between the inclusivist form of religion and the
exclusivist form can be compared to that of a democratic state and fascist
political parties, as Askari has cogently argued.”

Inclusivity was not merely a willingness to let every idea and practice
exist. Instead it was geared towards specific objectives, such as freeing
humankind from injustice and servitude to other human beings so that
they might be free to worship God. As has been explained, according to
the Qur'an, the belief that one is not accountable to God and shirk were
intrinsically connected to the socio-economic practices of the Arabs. In
order to ensure justice for all, it was important for Muhammad and his
community to work actively against those beliefs and not accord them a
position of equality.

‘The responsibility of calling humankind to God and to the path of
God will thus remain, The task of the present-day Muslim is to discern
what this means in every age and every society. Who is to be invited?
Who is to be taken as allies in this calling? How does one define the path
of God? These are particularly pertinent questions in a society where def-
initions of Self and Other are determined by justice and injustice, oppres-
sion and liberation and where the test of one's integrity as a human being
dignified by God is determined by the extent of one’s commitment to
defend that dignity.

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n, Liberation G Pluralism

Religion, it is evident, has not only been a participant in the struggle
to both retain the apartheid status quo and to destroy it; religion itself has
been a battlefield. It is within the context of this contest that our discussion
in the following chapter, on wilayah as solidarity or collaboration, is located,

Notes

|. In a study of abTaban’s treatment of Christianity and Christians, Charl, for example,
lamencs the "litle sense that there is of any development or gradation in the qur'anic position
towards the Christans from the earliest Meccan verses to the final Medinan ones’ (1980. p.
145). Nor. indeed. there any sense of the context or social location of the exegete. ‘Aside
from the mention of the intellectual lineage to which an individual author pays respect’,
observed McAuliffe, “it 1 frequently difficult to determine from internal evidence alone
whether a commentary was written in Anatolia or Andalusia, whether its mufanur (commen-
‘ator] had ever seen a Mongol or a Crusader or had ever conversed with a Christian or ever
conducted business with one’ (1991. p. 35)

2. This term 6 mostly used in the Qur'an to describe those inhabicanes of Medina who had
‘outwardly accepted Islam, but were suipect for various reasons. They were unreliable during.
times of crises (33:12-14), avoided participation, nancial or physica, in jhod (47:20-31) and
‘even looked forward to the time when the Prophet would be expelled from Medina (63:8).

3. The question of whether the Jewish communities were arabized Jews or judaized Arabs
hhas not been resolved. These communities were possibly founded by refugees who fled
from Palestine after Jerusalem was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar in $86 wcr (Saunder
1982, p. 11), "They were Arabic in language, in many customs and in aspects of dheir social
‘organization, and were clearly not subject to Talmudic discipline. And yet. f they were origh
‘ally Arabs, any consciousness of such relauonshyp had evaporated in consequence of their
having absorbed a Jewish exclusive outlook They felt themselves quite diferent from d
‘Arabs among whom they lived and had erected a self-sufficient barrier around themtelves
Gpencer-Triwingham 1979, p. 249),

4. Although tensions berwaen the Jews and the Musims were evident for some time before
the Barc of Badr (624), the first time thae Muhammad acted again the Jews was immediate
ly aftar this bate when Banu Qaynuqa’ was expelled for allegedly plotting the assassination
(of Muhammad, Banu al:Nadir and Banu Qurayzah were expelled subsequent to their alleged
collaboration with the enerny at che Butte of Uhud (625) and the Trench (627) respective
The last Jewish stronghold, Khaybar, fell co che Muslims in 628 after a long siege in response
to their alleged mexement of the Meccans to restart hostlives againt the Muslims. For wo
very different perspectives on the fate of Banu Qurayzah subsequent to the Bartle of the
Trench, see ak'Umari 1991, |. pp. 134-8 and Ahmad 1979, pp. 67-94,

5, The most widely known of there encounters » with a Syrian monk whom Muslims have
come to know as Bahira. He was supposed to have predicted that Muhammad was destined
to become a Messenger of God (lin Sa'd 1967, 1. p. 146),

6. The agreement. inter ofa, stated that ‘no bishop will be duplaced from his bishopric, no.
‘monk from his monastery and no testator from the property of his endowment’ (Ibe Sa'd
1967, |. p. 419). This community survived for at least two hundred years after the death of
‘Muhamerad (Spencer-Trimingham 1979, p. 307).

7, The history, stages and nature of this encounter have been dealt with extensively by both
traditional and contemporary scholarship. Muslim as well 38 non-Muslim. Barakat Ahmad
(1979), Wate (1953), Rahnan (1982c) and Newby (1988) are among the hout of scholars who
have dealt with the early Musinm-jewich encounter For the encounter between Muslims and
‘Christians, see lon Taymiyyah (1905), Bell (1970), Woyo (1982), Ceagg (1985) and MeAulife

176

The Qur'an & the Other

(1991), The heresiographer, ab Shahrastan (4.1153) devotes much attention to the category
of People of the Book (1961). For Musi relations with Jews and Christians as dhenmi, see
‘Yetor (1985).

8. The qurianic accusation of shirk against the Christians because of their alleged worshipping
of three deities (4 17-3: 5: 72-3, is a case in point: most Christians imsst chat the doctrine
of the Trinity is not the same as Tritheism. the worship of three gods (Kung 1987. pp. 90H:
Watt 1978, pp. 21-2, 47-9: BasersiSani 1967, pp. 188-93). More specially, che Unitarians,
who also regard themselves as Christians, even reject any notion of the Trinity

9. According to al-Baladhuri, the Prophet accepted fizyah, a kind of tax from the People of
the Book. This was an indication of the status of people of dhimmah, from the Magians of
Haj. ‘Umar al-Khatrab from the Persians, and “Uthvnan ibn “Affan from the Berbers of North
Alrica (1966, p, 21) Subsequently in history the ‘oma’ of some regions ofthe vastly enlarged
Muslim domam further expanded the term ‘people of dimmah’ to include the followers of
other faiths not nacessanly Semitic (aMAbidin 1986, p. 4). The Shorter Encyiopoedie of Ilam
states that ‘in the 14th century a Muhammadan prince in India alowed the Chinese, against
payment of jzyah, to keep vp a pagods on Muslim rerrtory’ and vhat ‘the inner state of affairs
im India brought it about that even veritable idolaters were considered a8 "people of
himmmah (SEI ‘People of the Book’. p. 17). AbTabataba't regarded the Zoroastriant ai
People of the Book (1973, 14, p. 538) and Abu'-Kalam Azad (4. 1858) considered the Hindus
as such (Hamidullah 1986, p. 4)

10, The expression ‘Fourth Work ss increasingly uted to reler to thote indigenous commu
Intien marginalized and oppressed in thew own countries of origin, respective of the eco:
‘hore Status of that country. These communities are also called first peoples’ i the sense of
having inhabited their linds before other communities served there (Burger 1990)

11. The term unvnah occurs nine times in the Meccan context and forey-teven ames \n that
Understood £0 be Medinan It is used to refer exclusively to the socio-hstorical convmurvty
of Muslims (2143: 3:10), to a group of people” (from among the Muss n 3104 and from
among the Christians in 5:66), community in the broad sence (6:108: 7:34; 10.47), to an ind
vidual (16:120-1), Qur'an 23°52 refers to the communities of all the prophets. For much of
the Medinan period the term was used to dercrde ‘the totality of ndivduals bound to one
another irrespective of their colour, race oF social satus, by the doctrine of submistion to
‘one God’ (Ahmad 1979, pp. 38-9). Looking at the way the term ummah has today acquired
an exclusiva meaning, Ahmad says that ‘ve main dificuly in dealing with the history of ideas
Is that terms are more permanent chan their definitions” (ibid 1979, p. 39).

1. The other is Quan 5:69; ‘Surely those who have faith and those who are jews and the
Sabeans and the Christians. whoever has fath in Allah and the Last Day and does good. they
‘hall have no fear nor shal they grieve” Since there ino signficanc dflerence inthe exegeo-
{al treatment of these (wo texts, | have confined my reflecoons to iterpretavons of che frst
1, This theory is neatly supported by a lengthy account regarding the spirtual search of
Salman alFarsi (a 658) before he encountered the Prophet. Ssiman was grieved at the inabil-
17 of his deeply pious friends to embrace Islam. as they ha died before hearing about his new
faith (Ayoub 1984, I. pp. 110-12: MeAulfle 1991. pp. 105-9). According to several of the
exegetes, this verse was occasioned by God's wih to console Salman. In one of the two nar-
rations of this story, alter informing Salman of the revelation of this verse, the Propher &
reported to have said: ‘Whoever has died én the faith of Jesus and died in ilom belore he
heard of me, his lot shall be good But whoever hears of me today and yet does not assent to
ime shall perth’ (al-Tabari 1954, 1, p. 323).

AlShahrastani (4 $48) discusses this problem at some length and substantiates the
supercessionist theory on rational grounds. ‘elam abrogates ail prenous codet of which I
the perfection if contemporary law is subject to constant akterabon to meet changing
conditions why is impossible that laws given tb one people at one ome should be abrogat-
ted elsewhere at another cme? The law corresponds to actions, and the active changes of

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Qur'an, Liberation & P

death and life. Humankind's creation and annihilation, sometimes gradually, sometimes instan-
taneously. correspond to the lezal changes of permitted and forbidden. M we consider the
formation of man from his pre-embryoric beginning to hs full stature we see that each pro-
gressed from code to code tll the perfection ofall codes was reached! (1934. pp. 158-9).

14, Al-Tabar includes Mujahid and alSuddi in ths ‘group among the exegetes’ who believed
that the three categories of the Other applied to those who actually encountered
‘Muhammad. The fact of a group with this opinion was, however, regarded as significant
‘enough by al-Tabari for him to start his interpretation ofthis text with a refutation of those
who argue thatthe verse relates to thase who encountered Mutammad and for several cth-
{rs to devote arention to refuting it. (1954, 1, p. 323)

15, Abu abFucuh al-Razi and Khazin (ad, 4, p. 138) are among those who hold this view
while al-Baidawi (ni. 4, p. 135) and al-Razi (1990, 3. p. 112) offer both committed followers
‘of the Prophet and the hypocrites as possible meanings. Al-Raz) cites two texts in support of
the view that those who have faith can also be interpreted as the hypocrites: Sil, (those
who say *we believe” with their mouths, but their hearts do not believe’) and 4:36 ( you
who believe, believe in Allah) which he interprets as O you who beleve with your tongues,
believe with your hearts (cited in MeAuifle 1991p. 121),

16, The exegetes did not hesitate to name che converted individuals who are supposedly
referred to in this text and in others. Thus, 31199 (Verily among the People of the Book are
those who have faith . ..) is viewed as alternapvely referring to the Christian Negus of
Abyssinia and his associates, who, tis caimed, embraced islam; ‘Abd Allah ibn Salam, an early
Jewish convert to Islam: and various groups such ‘forty people from Najran’, “thirty from
Abyssinia’ eighty Romans’ all of whom ‘were following the din of ‘isa chen they Became
Muslims’ (ab Tabari rn. 3, p. 173: al-Zamakhshari nd, 1. p. 459: al-Baidaw nd. tp 656),

17. have adopted the translation of Moota (1988, p. 9) who explains that shor isa path
with metaphysical implications while minhoy implies a practical way in which things are done.
This distinction is also evident from ab: Tabar's explanation of this verse that for every peo-
ple among you we have made a way to the truth to believe in and a clear path to act upon!
(1954, 6p. 269), Incerestingly. most of the exegetes do not deal here with the possible dif
ferences between thi‘sh/shor'ah and minha. but between din and sharfah, An exception it
Razi who offers two opinions, incuding the following: ‘hich refers to shar'ah in a general
way, whereas minhoj refers to a shor‘ah of excellence. shor‘ch a the ongin of acbon whi
minha} is 3 continuation on the pach’ (1990, 12. p. 13)

1B. The Qur'an postulates that all of these scriptures originate from the same source, the
Mother of the Book (1339; 43.4) and chat separately each constitutes only a pornon of the
‘Quran (2:231; 18:28; 29-45; 35:31), the Torah and the Gospels (4:44: 451).

19, 1am indebeed to Hamikon (1991) for the insights into the signficance for religious plural
{a of the qur'aric metaphor of competition in righteousness

20. 'W a group or party arises which does not agree to the democratic rule and works £0
‘overthrow the government of the day by violent means in order to create a fascist social
‘order wherein there i no room for democravc exprestion and exercise of pinion and
power, that group cannot lay claim to those rights enjoined by a democracy’ (Askari 1986,
. 328), Askari argues that the basis of this coexistence is a recognition of the superionty of
pluralism and democracy. A group opposed to democracy and determined to violently over-
throw a democratically elected government in order to create a fascist social order, he says
‘cannot lay cai to thane rights enjoined by a democracy (1986, p, 5). This analogy, extend-
4 £0 religious communities. according to him, means that ‘the rights which religious com-
imnities have va-é-vs one another should derwe from 3 shared theology which... affirms
religious diversity in order to ave praise, in various ways and modes, to the One and the
same Transcendent God! (bid)

178

REDEFINING COMRADES
& OPPONENTS

INTERRELIGIOUS SOLIDARITY
for JUSTICE

By Go As lang a¢ the ocean drench

recewve recompense for th q

rights and we see that all receive equal treatment
e a

(From dhe Oath of the Righteous, Ibn Sa'd 1967, 1, p. 145)

Pluralism Wedded to Liberation

31 showed in chapter 1, the discourse on religious pluralism among
AA south african Muslims took place within a concrete struggle for lib-

eration, We have seen how this struggle led to the employment of certain

hermeneutical ke

s, invoked both as tools of liberation and as ways of

approaching and understanding the Qur'an. Reflecting on the qur'anic
texts with the use of these keys enabled progressive Islamists to develop a
tion of the Self and Other according to the Qur'an.

place within a concrete struggle

new appr
‘The fact that this redefinition

for justice meant that the emerging theology of religious pluralism was

intrinsically wedded to one of liberation. The vague liberal embrace of all
4. While it was evident that the old
theological categories of Self and Other were no longer tenable, if they

forms of Otherness was thus a

ever were, the struggle against apartheid also taught the progressive
Islamist that there were diverse forms of Otherness, some of which had to
be opposed relentlessly. Within the Muslim community there were col-
laborators with tricameralism and within the oppressed black community

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Qur'an, Liberation & Pluralism

there were those who made common cause with the apartheid regime.
The embrace of Otherness was thus a qualified one, of the Other as com-
rade in arms.

In this embrace of the Other in solidarit

. Progressive Islamists drew
theological support and affirmation from various paradigms of struggle in
Islamic history and the Qur'an. This is evident from the _religio-politi-
cal discourse in their sermons and publications, as discussed in chapter 1
Deriving support from the religious and just Other was affirmed by the
sojourn of early Muslims in Abyssinia, while solidarity with the Other,
religious or otherwise, was affirmed by the Exodus paradigm.

Invoking the Exodus paradigm is based on the fact that the history of
century Arabia and its environs, ‘The
Qur'an, as I have shown, insists on the acceptance of all the prophets
who preceded Muhammad as authentic messengers of God and recounts
some of their anguish, struggles and victor

Islam is not confined to seventh

ies in detail, The phenomenon
of Islamists resorting to pre-Muhammadan religio-historical paradigms
can thus be said to be as old as reified Islam itself

In this chapter I have two main objectives. ‘The first is to show that
the Qur'an does not prevent Muslims from working with others in a com-
mon cause to serve justice and righteousness. ‘Those very texts that
appear to be prohibiting this, if examined within their historical contexts,
are in fact significant for a qur’anic hermeneutic of religious pluralism
and liberation. The second is to show that the Qur'an and Muhammad's
example encourage co-operation and solidarity across "belief lines for
justice and righteousness and that this solidarity is not based on a vague
and undefined desire for peace and quiet. Rather, it is based on a struggle
against injustice o

id for the creation of a world wherein it is safe to be
human and where people are freed from enslavement to man in order to
worship God freely

The Qur'an and Wilayah as Collaboration

In the
against apartheid characterized much of South African Muslim dis-

ist chapter we saw how the debate around interfaith solidarity
course during the 1980s and how qur'anic texts were used by different
sides of this debate to support their own perspectives. Here I reflect on
the question of the qur’anic prohibition of alliances or relationships of
affinity (wilayah) with the religious Other. The following text is one of

several in the Qur'an prohibiting the mu’minun from taking Others as
their allies:

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ag Comrades & Opponents

© You who have attained to faith! Do not take the Jews and the
Christians for your allies; they are but allies of one another; and
whoever of you allies himself with them becomes, verily, one of
them, Behold, God does not guide such evildoers. (5:51)

While this text prohibits the wilayah of the Jews and the Christians, else-
where the prohibition applies to the hafirun (3:28; 4:139; 4:14), ‘people
who are not of your kind’ (3:118), the hypocrites (4:89), “such as mock at
your din’ (5:57), "the enemies of God’ (60:1), ‘such as fight against you
because of (your) din, and drive you forth from your homes, ar aid (oth-
ers) in driving you forth’ (60:9), ‘people whom God has condemned’
(60:13) and ‘your fathers and your brothers for friends if kufr is dearer to
them than faith’ (9:23-4). Related to this prohibition are the injunctions
to seek the wilayah of God alone; that of God, God and the mu'minun,
(5:56); that of the mu’minun and those who went into exile (8:72-3) or
that of the men and women of faith (9:70).

In addition to the South African experience of solidarity in the strug-
gle against oppression, there are several seeming inconsistencies in the
text and between the texts and early Muslim behaviour (including that of
Muhammad) that necessitate a search for a contextual meaning of these
texts, Firstly, several texts insisting that only God can be the protector
and friend of the people of faith’ are seemingly contradicted by a number
of others stating that God and other mu 'minun can also, and indeed
‘ought to, be their allies (3:28, 118; 5:55; 9:16, 70). Then, in Qur'an 5:55
the type of mu min whose wilayah is permitted is defined: ‘those who ful-
fil their poor-due obligations and who establish prayer’.’ This would
exclude the generality of Muslims ~ those who follow what Rida
described as ‘ethnic Islam’ ~ from such a relationship. Thirdly, elsewhere
the Qur'an allows the most intimate of relationships, inchuding that of
matrimony (5:5) and asylum (5:82), between the People of the Book and
the mu'minun. Moreover, Muhammad and his Companions maintained
cordial personal relationships between themselves and various individuals
and communities among the religious Other. Finally, the early Muslims
under the leadership of Muhammad had regularly entered into political
and mutual defence agreements with the religious Other.

‘The text under discussion, Qur’an 5:51, like all those prohibiting
‘Muslims from the wilayah of Others, is Medinan and reflects the religio-
political tensions of that period. As | indicated in chapter 5, it is evident
from the seemingly contradictory texts dealing with the religious Other
that these reflect the various stages in the Muslim-Other relationship. A

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Qur'an, Liberation & Pluralism

number of separate accounts have been offered by the exegetes regarding
the particular circumstances around the revelation of this verse.

1. At the outbreak of hostilities between Banu Qaynuga‘ and the
Muslims, ‘Abd Allah ibn Ubay, widely regarded as a prominent figure
among the hypocrites, remained attached to Banu Qaynuqa’. He
reportedly approached the Prophet, saying ‘I am a person who fears
the vicissitudes of time and shall not disavow the wilayah of my pro-
tectors’ (al-Tabari 1954, 6, p. 275; al-Zamakhshari n.d., 1, p. 642).
On the other hand, ‘Ubadah ibn Samit and another person from
Banu "Awf iba al-Khazraj, went to the Prophet, disavowed their simi-
lar relationship with the Banu Qaynuga’ and are reported to have
said: ‘We befriend God, His Prophet and the mu'minun and seek
refuge in God and His Prophet from alliances with those kuffar and
their allies’ (ibid.). This verse was revealed to support the action of
the latter and to denounce that of the former. ‘God informs him [Ibn
Ubay] that if he remains in solidarity with them and retains links with
them then he [effectively] is among them in abandoning God and His
Prophet’ (al-Tabari 1954, 6, p. 275).

2. When Banu Qurayzah violated the agreement between them and God
by writing to Abu Sufyan ibn Harb inviting him and the Quraysh to
enter their strongholds, Muhammad sent Abu Lubabah ibn ‘Abd al-
Mundhir as an emissary to demand their surrender. When he depart-

ed, in a seeming act of sympathy with them, he pointed to his throat,
indicating that they would be killed (Rida 1980, 6, p. 425; al-Tabari
1954, 6, p. 275),

3. Some of the Muslims corresponded with the Christians of Syria while
others corresponded with the Jews of Medina, informing them of the
activities and military plans of Muhammad “so that they may benefit
from their wealth, even if it was by way of borrowing money’ (Rida
1980, 6, p. 425)

4. Al-Tabari (1956, 6, p. 276) says that, on the eve of the Battle of
Ubud, a group of Muslims felt
huffar would overpower them. Some of them indicated that they
would join the Jews, secking security with them and even become
Jews, while others indicated that they would do so among the
Christians in a part of Syria

tremely anxious and feared that the

It should be noted that these various accounts of the event that occa-
sioned this verse are generally characteristic of all the verses prohibiting

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& Comrades & Opponents

the wilayah of the religious Other. The exegetes who have elaborated on
the meaning of the term wilayah in this context differ as to whether it
means formal alliances and agreements, more personal bonds or a com-
bination of these, Rida and al-Zamakhshari interpret wilayah to mean
‘the rendering of mutual assistance and alliances’ (Rida 1980, 6, p. 425;
al-Zamakhshari n.d., 1, p. 642). Al-Razi adds a more personalist dimen-
sion: ‘relying upon their personal assistance and drawing close to them’
(1990, 12, p, 18). Al-Tabataba’i goes to great lengths to insist that the
personalist dimension, ‘affectionate closeness’, is the essence of its mean-
ing. He, in fact, favours a meaning that removes any distinction between
the partners in the wilayah relationship and fuses their personal and reli-
gious identities.’ There has been some discussion around the employ-
ment of the singular form of the word, wali. Some have suggested that
the wilayah of God, Muhammad and of the mu’minun really refers to a
single relationship (al-Razi 1990, 12, p. 47; Rida 1980, 6, p. 441).
Others, such as Nasr al-Din al-Baidawi (n.d., 11, p. 206), suggest that it
is only the wilayah of God that is real and self-existing, while that of
Muhammad and the mu’minun really emanates from the wilayah of God."

The meaning of wilayah in the Qur'an is clearly not static. From the
accounts of events that occasioned the revelation of the various texts
dealing with wilayah, it is clear that the word is understood in at least
three different senses: 1) personal links of affection; 2) agreements char-
acteristic of Arab intertribal relations, or even relations between an indi-
vidual and a tribe other than his own and; 3) a relationship of trust in
God. While a clear distinction cannot always be drawn between these dif-
ferent meanings it is, nevertheless, important to appreciate the different
applications of the term.

‘The word was never actively invoked in the South African context,
However, two terms embody its socio-political and religious applications:
collaboration and solidarity. While collaboration is defined in the Shorter
Oxford English Dictionary as ‘wo co-operate’ and a collaborator as ‘some-
‘one who works in conjunction with another or others’, in South Africa it
had long since acquired a pejorative sense: to emerge from the communi-
ty of the oppressed and to willingly participate in the socio-political struc~
tures of that oppression. Solidarity, defined as ‘the fact or quality on the
part of communities, etc., of being perfectly united or at one in some
respect especially in interests, sympathy or aspirations’, was how the rela
tionship between the various components of the liberation struggle was
described.

It is my submission that the Qur’anic injunctions against the

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on & Pluralism

wilayah of the kuffar relate to collaboration with the unjust and
unrighteous Other and not solidarity with the exploited and margin-
alized Other. This interpretation is evident from the way the text
prohibiting wilayah is circumscribed by a number of contextual and
textual constraints.

‘The context of this verse within the chapter indicates that the central
issue is not doctrinal; on the contrary, here, and elsewhere (Qur'an
3:22-5; 3;118-120; 5:57; 60:8-9), the prohibition of wilayah is preceded
by an acknowledgement of religious diversity

Unto every one of you have We appointed a [different] law and way
of life. And if God had so willed, He could surely have made you all
‘one single community: but He willed it otherwise in order to test you
by means of what He has vouchsafed unto you. Vie, then, with one
another in doing good works! Unto God you all must return; and
then He will make you truly understand all that on which you were
wont to differ. (5:48)

From the context of the revelation, whichever of the putative occasions of
revelation one may wish to consider, it is evident that the conditions
under which the miayah of the religious Other is denounced are those of
hostility, war and physical threats to the survival of the community of
believers. This is also true of all the other similar texts, In the words of
Ansari, "Every such verse relates without exception, only to those non-
Muslims who were sworn enemies of Islam and whose active hostility
towards Muslims had reached the highest limits’ (1977, 2, p. 271).
Within this context, engaging in a relationship of wilayah with the
enemy is tantamount to betraying one’s own. This is also shown by the
frequent linking of these texts (¢.g., 3:26-7, 5:51~60) to the activities of
the hypocrites

Wherever the immediate context of warfare is missing, then the fac-

tor of relentless enmity towards the mu ‘minun is evident. At various other

ic about the ways in which this enmity was

junctures the Qur'an is spec
manifested. The Qur'an prohibits the mu’minun from entering into
alliances or having friendly relations with those who mock them and their
beliefs (4:139; 5:57), who spare no effort to corrupt them and who
rejoice in their misfortune. ‘Vehement hatred has already come into the
open from their mouths’, says the Qur'an, and ‘what their hearts conceal
is yet worse” (3:118); they grieved at whatever good fortune occurred to
the mu minun and rejoiced at whatever evil overtook them (3:120); they
yearned to sce the rmu‘minun ‘deny the truth even as they have denied it’

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(4:89) and they preferred the penal system of pre-Islamic ignorance,
which discriminated on the basis of tribal origin (5:50)." The enmity of
those whose wilayah was denounced was not confined to the personal
sphere. Among the reasons the Qur’an puts forward for denouncing the
wilayah of the kuffar or that of the People of the Book is the fact that they
actively engaged in the oppression of the mu winun, drove them out of
their homes and persecuted them on account of their faith (60:9)

It is evident from this that the mu'minun were instructed in a particu-
lar response to active hostility from the Other, rather than to the fact of
Otherness or diversity. The context of hostility is specifically mentioned
when the Qur'an instructs the mu'minun to avoid the company of ‘those
who deny the truth of God's messages and mock them . . . until they
begin to engage in a different discourse’ (4:138ff). ‘Now, whenever you
meet such as indulge in (blasphemous) talk about Our messages,’ says
the Qur'an, ‘turn thy back upon them until they begin to talk of other
things’ (6:68). This is also borne out in Qur’an 4:89 where the refusal to
g0 into exile was seen as a sign of hypocrisy that would similarly exclude
‘one from the wilayah of the mu'minun. Here the mu'minun were instruct-
ed to avoid the wilayah of other mu’nrinun who did not go into exile
except in the case of someone who entered into an agreement with peo-
ple with whom the mu minun were connected by a treaty (4:90)

Given the vehemence with which the milayah of the Other is general-
ly denounced, one may assume that this is applicable to a situation of
active hostility. In the words of Rida, ‘these verses are clear proof that the
prohibition is based on the enmity of people being at war with each
other, not due to the existences of differences in din by itself as God has

ordered all disputants to say: “You have your din and I have mine””

(1980, 6, p. 426). In one instance though, this prohibition does not occur

within the context of war (5:57). In the absence of such a context and the
citation of seemingly doctrinal differences one needs to consider the sig-
nificance of the relationship between doctrine and praxis in society in
general and that of Hijaz in particular, Furthermore, if the general import
of the verse is considered, in the absence of the context of the hostilities
of war, then one still finds that the prohibition of zilayah is circum-
scribed in several instances by qualifying phrases. This brings us to the
question of textual qualification to the prohibition. While the prohibition
of wilayah with the kuffar is characterized in the relevant texts, the
Qur'an specifies four cases as exceptions to its prohibition. Firstly, such
relationships should not be ‘to the exclusion of the mu 'mrinun” (3:28).
Secondly, wilayah with the kuffar is permitted for the protection of the

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Qurvan, Liberation & Pluralism

mu'minun (ibid.). Thirdly, it is acceptable to join a group with whom the
mu’minun already have a non-aggression treaty (4:90). Fourthly, the pro-
hibition does not apply to those who approach the mu’minun unwilling to
fight them and their own people (ibid.

The Exceptions to the Prohibition
The Mu’minun Should Not be Excluded

The phrase ‘to the exclusion of the mu minun’ in Qur’an 3:28, may seem
to imply that the Other may not be taken as one’s friend or ally to the
exclusion of the community of the faithful. However, this would be
acceptable if the essential base of inspiration and support was that com-
munity. This qualification seems to highlight the significance of the soci-
ological imperatives in the question of wilayah: Muhammad was also

engaged in the task of building a social community, albeit on religious
principles. Given that it was a community of faith and praxis, which
people entered by choice, and that there was little by way of a common
history, tradition, tribe, or class to cement their bonds, it was important
that the new community be regarded as the essential base of support and
inspiration.

Self-Defence May be an Objective
The expression illa an tattagu minhwm tugatan has been trunslated in a
variety of different ways:

[Don't take them as your areliya*} but you should (instead) guard
Yourselves against them, guarding carefully. (Shakir, n.d., p. 78)

(Don't take them as your avliya"} unless it be to protect yourselves
against them in this way. (Asad 1980, p. 70; Yusuf ‘Ali 1989,
p. 134)

[Don't take them as your arliya"} unless it be that you (are able to)
guard against them. (Pickthall n.d., p. 57)

(Don’t take them as your atliya") except if you fear a danger from
them. (al-Hilali 1993, p. 80)

‘The classical commentaries favour the translations of Shakir and Asad, as
is clear from the lengthy discourses on religious dissimulation that follows
their brief explanations of the text (al-Zamakhshari n.d., 1, p. 351; al-
Razi 1990, 8, p. 14).” Given the general context of hostility of this and
other similar texts, the meaning of a somewhat expedient relationship
favoured by al-Hilali, Asad, Yusuf "Ali and Shakir is quite plausible.

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Redef

ng Comrades & Opponents

During the 1980s some well-meaning Islamists in South Africa, along
with some of the accommodationist clerics, reasoned along similar lines,
that one may seek the wilayah of the People of the Book, or even of athe-
ists, if this were to secure the long-term survival of Islam. The fundamen-
talist Islamists who argued along these lines differed only from the
accommodationist clerics in making a strategic choice for security with
the inevitably victorious masses, rather than with the collapsing regime.
In view of the hermeneutical keys of justice elaborated upon in chapter 3,
this unprincipled position is indefensible. People of faith participate in a
struggle for justice because it is an expression of that faith; not to protect
themselves or even to secure the survival of their faith

Pickthall’s translation is of greater relevance in the broader context of
nurturing a fragile process of community building, the apparent context
of the verse wherein this qualification features (5:28), In other words, the
wilayah of the Other is acceptable on condition thst one is able to guard
‘against whatever is negative in the Other or detrimental to one’s own.
community of faith and praxis.”

The Accountability of Those Connected to the Treaty

Partners of the Mu’minun

‘The qualification in Qur'an 4:90 appears to apply to those Muslims who
were unwilling or unable to go into exile to Medina when instructed to
do so by Muhammad, In the preceding text those who did not wish to go
into exile are asked to desist from taking those unwilling or unable to do
so as their awliya’. Al-Razi says that the reference is to those Muslims
who intended joining Muhammad but found this difficult. They sought
asylum with a community who had a treaty with the Muslims until they
could find a way to him." The fact, though, that this text allows one
group of Muslims to have a relationship with another group, not because
of the bonds of a common religious identity, but because the second
group has a political relationship with a group of another religious com-
munity, is significant. This points to the socio-political considerations
underlying and informing the question of wilayah during the period of
qur'anic revelation. The case for socio-political, rather than doctrinal,
factors informing the question of ewilayah is also affirmed if the text actu-
ally refers to the religious Other, as some have argued.”

Those Unvwilling to Fight the Mu’minun and Their Own People

Here again one finds a difference of opinion regarding the referent of the
text. The majority argue that it refers to the kuffar: ‘God has ordered

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Qurtan, Liberation & Pluralism

fighting the Auffar except if they are involved in a treaty or if they desist
from killing, in which case it is not permissible to fight them (al-Razi
1990, 10, p. 230).”

However one interprets these qualifications to the prohibition of
wilayah, the Qur'an is explicit about the fact that God does not forbid
‘one from a relationship of compassion and justice with those who ‘do not
fight against you on account of [your] faith, and neither drive you forth
from your homes” (60:8).

Who is the Self and Other in the Wilayah
Rejected by the Qur'an?

‘The Qur'an is explicit about the motives that led some of the early
Muslims, or those who identified with the community, into a relation-
ship of wilayah with those who opposed Muhammad, In the attempt to

develop a contextual theology of pluralism for liberation it is important
to identify the basic motivation of those whose pursuit of wilayah with
the Other was denounced, as well as the specific characteristics of that
puth Africa of the 1980s. In

order to reflect on the qur’anic view of tilayah with the Other in a society

Other, and to relate these categories to the S

characterized by the divisions of apartheid South Africa, two questions
need to be addressed. How does the Qur'an describe the Other when it
cautions the mu’wtimun against them? How does the Qur'an describe the
Self seeking that ewilayah?

‘The first characteristic of those whose wilayah is to be avoided is that
they “abuse the din of the mu'minun and mock the signs of God’, From
the various accounts of the occasions of revelation that have been sug-
gested for the texts referring to those who abused the din of the mu'minun
(5:57) and mocked the signs of God (4:140), it is evident thar these relat-
ed to both verbal abuse™ and an active disregard for living alongside the

implications of faith, The Qur'an is emphatic about treating the religious
beliefs of others, including that of the mushrikun, with sensitivity (6:108)
‘What is being condemned in Qur

n 5:57 is the practice of insulting the
beliefs of the mu'minun, in the same way that the Qur'an appealed to
the mu'minun to desist from doing this to others. Given that dint is
essentially about transforming lives and society, this kind of competition
in verbal declarations and mutual insults is anathema to it. Indeed, one

may say that the mutual denunciation of each other's religious beliefs is
often a form of compensation for the inability or refusal to live along-

side all the implications of one's own, another form of taking one’s faith

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Redefining Comrades & Opponents

as ‘jest and play’ (5:57).

In South Africa it was (and remains) characteristic of accommoda-
tion theology to engage in this kind of mocking of the faith. Furthermore,
the mutual exchange of interreligious insults was characteristic of a par-
ticular form of accommodation theology, i.e. evangelism. Organizations
such as Christ for All Nations and the International Islamic Propagation
Centre, in varying degrees, consistently displayed support for the
apartheid power structures whenever they paused in their onslaughts
‘against the religious Other. On the other hand, as I showed in chapter 1,
other non-Muslims committed co a theology of justice and compassion
consistently showed a deep respect for the beliefs of Muslims. This was
particularly the case when this belief was concretized in the daily strug-
gles of people for justice. These non-Muslims were also willing to defend
that respect publicly. As for the apartheid regime, even while it professed
@ sincere respect for religion, it consistently identified with and was sus-

tained by accommodation theology, which remained contemptuous of
any form of religion that sought to relate belief in God to compassion for
all of God's people.”

Secondly, according to the Qur'an, the mu 'minun should avoid those
who yearn to see them deny the truth (4:89). The apartheid regime
imposed various measures to enforce a system of racial segregation and
was desperate for all South Africans to deny the truth of equality and
non-racialism, and of a God concerned with all of creation, particularly
the marginalized and oppressed. ‘The truth’, as I argued in previous
chapters, was not so much about dogma or doctrine but about the impli-

cations of these in an oppressive and divided society.

The final characteristic of those whose wilayah must be avoided is
that they oppress and persecute the mu ’minun (60:9): “It is only with
regards to those who fought you on account of your religion and have
driven you out of your homes, and help to drive you out, Allah forbids
you to befriend them.” This verse is a reference to the early Muslims"
forced removals from Mecca by a systematic process of persecution and
harassment. The fact that this, as a sin, is mentioned immediately after
lack of faith is significant, since forced removals are usually seen as an
essentially political act. Here, once again, the Qur'an underlines the
totality of life and the comprehensive nature of God’s concern for al-nas,

‘The Group Areas Act, under which millions of people were unjustly
and forcibly driven out of their homes, was perhaps the most v
the apartheid regime's laws. Enacted under the prayerful eye of the Dutch
Reformed Church, it caused people to be uprooted from homes and land

ious of

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Qur'an. Liberation & Pluralism

that had, in some cases, been inhabited by their ancestors for centuries,
While the vast majority of the population refused to participate in the
apartheid regime's various schemes to make them co-participants in their
‘own oppression, a few were always found willing to collaborate. The
refusal of a large number of Muslims to associate with those who collabo-
rated with the apartheid regime was affirmed by the qur’ani
those ‘who aid others in driving you from your houses’. It was thus not
only the wilayah of the oppressors that the Qur'an condemned, but also

reference to

relationships with the collaborators in oppression. This rejection of any
association with the apartheid regime was also emphasized in another
verse of the Qur'an: ‘And lean not towards those who oppress, lest the
fire should seize you and you will not find in God a friend or protector’
(11:113). The vast majority of South Africans were not guilty of any of
these crimes, neither were they in any position to inflict these crimes
upon the Muslim community with whom they shared a common yolk of
oppression.

One may argue that the Qur’an denounces the wilayah of the Other
who oppress the Muslims on the basis of their faith and that, in apartheid
South Africa, this was never the case, Furthermore, unlike the early
Muslims, all South Africans were free to practise their faith, A United
Democratic Front pamphlet suggests that a response to this question
depends on what kind of faith one is dealing with

Why were our mosques left untouched when they bulldozed District
Six and Vrededorp out of existence? Why are we being offered more
sites for graveyards by them? Why are we being allowed loudspeaker
facilities to call others to worship?

Because they know that our call to prayer is no longer a call to
struggle as it was in the time of Muhummad; that our mosques are
no longer the centres of planning the struggle against the usurpation
of power and that our graveyards no longer accommodate martyrs in
the fight for justice!

Hence, when they offer us freedom to call to prayer, freedom to
die a death of apathy and more graves to be buried in, then they also
intend to bury the dynamic Islam of Muhammad! (UDF 1984, p. 19)

Those Who Sought the Wilayah of the Other

The various verses prohibiting the wilayak of the Other either allude to,
or make explicit mention of, the motives of those who sought it.
Furthermore, all the incid asions of revelation
suggest motives that may be classified as placing narrow self-interest

ts cited as possible

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Redefining Comrades & Opponents

above that of the community of faith and praxis; pursuing ‘izzah (honour
and power); or identifying with narrow tribalism,

‘To consider first the motive placing self-interest above that of the
community of faith and praxis: this is more specifically the motivation in
the selected text (Qur'an 5:51, see page 181). Referring to those who
sought the wilayah of the Other, Qur'an 5:52 says ‘and yet you can see
how those in whose hearts there is disease vie with one another for their
goodwill, saying [to themselves}, “We fear lest fortune tum against us”’."”
‘This is also evident from the various accounts cited on page 182 by Rida,
al-Tabari, al-Razi and al-Zamakhshari of the events that occasioned the
revelation of this text,

In apartheid South Africa, the argument of collaboration with the
Other ‘lest fortune turns against us’ was indeed common. This was an
argument invoked by those who believed in the power of the apartheid
regime, rather than in the ability of the masses to overcome it. Because
the state and its institutions were the centres of political and economic
power, rather than the various community or political organizations
opposing them, it was also an argument used by those who desired to
protect their often substantial financial stakes in the apartheid state

‘Those who entered into a relationship of solidarity with the masses
against the apartheid regime, on the contrary, made enormous sacrifices
of whatever financial resources they had. They often opted out of estab-
shed and financially lucrative careers for the financial uncertainty of life
as political dissidents and the personal insecurity of living ‘on the run’,
Rather than choosing the wilayah of the powerful for security and protec-
tion against the vicissitudes of time, they chose the wilayah of the poor
and marginalized and the concomitant long spells in detention and con-
frontation with tear-gas, quirts, bullets and even death.

The second motive for seeking the wilayah of the Other is the pursuit
of power and glory. Denouncing those who choose the kuffar as azliya”
instead of mu’minun, the Qur'an asks rhetorically: ‘Do they look for
power and glory at their hands? Lo! All power and glory belongs to God
(4:139). The general consensus of the exegetes on the word kafirun in
this text is that itis a reference to some of the Jews, since Qur'an 4:137 is
‘a direct allusion to them (al-Razi 1990, 11, p. 81). The kind of power the
Qur'an suggests the hypocrites pursued in the milayah with the kuffar is
that which is characteristic of the politically, socially and economically

powerful: a power that permeated the tribal and patriarchal social struc-
tures of pre-Islamic paganism, Muhammad and the early Muslims were
at pains to avoid being absorbed into these leadership structures, because

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they militated against all that Islam represented. The kind of power
Muhammad eschewed was that which meant being co-opted by the rul-
ing class in order to lend credibility to them while the threat to their
hegemony was being neutralized.”

In South African terms, one may say that it was the power that
accompanied collaboration with the apartheid regime, its homeland sys-
tem and its tricameral parliament. By contrast, there were those who
sought a different kind of power, a simple dignity that comes from being
human. This dignity was born from, and nurtured in, an ethos of resis-
n, and from activism in a struggle for liberation.

The third motive is the refusal to reject narrow tribalism. The

tance to oppre:

attempts by the now disempowered Medinan power brokers to subvert
the new order assumed different dimensions. One significant such
dimension was the attempts to rekindle the flames of narrow tril
nsume pre-Islamic Arab society.
‘Tribalism was the antitheses of this very fragile new-found unity based on
the ideal of rawhid.” Some of the Jews in Medina, such as Shish ibn
Qays, went to great lengths to revive tribal hostilities characteristic of pre-
Islamic paganism (Lings 1983, p. 1275 al-Zamakhshari n.d., 1, p. 393).
‘The tribes, which now comprised the newly forged community of faith
and praxis, Were not always alert to these attempts at undermining their
unity; nor were they fully aware of the extent to which tribal affinities
might militate against this new-found and fragile unity. In at least one
case, some of the mu’minun among Aws and Khazraj, both tribes that had

that had so often threatened to

entered the fold of Islam, came to blows with each other as a direct con
sequence of appeals to disregard their ideological unity in favour of their
older tribal links, Muhammad was angered at this flare-up of hostilities
between the Muslims, ‘Do you appeal to the ethos of pre-Islamic pagan
tribalism while I am in your midst?’, he is reported to have chastised
them (al-Zamakhshari n.d, 1, p. 393), It was in response to this event
that the following instruction was issued to the mu 'minun to avoid pursu-
ing the wilayah of some of the People of the Book (al-Zamakhshari n.d.,
1, p. 393; al-Razi 1990, 6, p, 422)

Say: O People of the Book! Why do you reject the signs of God? And
God is a witness over what you do,

Say: O People of the Book! Why do you [endeavour to] bar those
who have come to believe {in this divine wnt] from the path of God
by trying to make it appear crooked, when you yourselves bear wit-
ness [to its being straight]? 04, is not unaware of whar you do.

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ng Comrades & Opponents

© you who have attained to faith! If you pay heed to some of the
People of the Book, they might cause you to renounce the truth after
you come have to believe [in it}

And how could you deny the truth when it is unto you that God's
message are being conveyed, and it is in your midst that His Apostle
lives? But he whe holds fast unto God has already been guided onto
a straight way. (Qur'an 3:98-101)”

‘The contemporary equivalents of Shish ibn Qays are people whose ideol-
ogy is rooted in racism and tribslism, and who continue to fan those
flames in order that their power bases remain intact, The apartheid state,
it needs be remembered, was not concerned with religious identity in
itself but utilized it to underpin its obsession with tribal and racial identi-
ties. It is the wilayah of the advocates of division based on lineage and
ethnicity, whatever labels ~ Muslim, Christian, Jewish or Hindu ~ they
may be wearing, against which the Qur’an cautions. In contrast, the sec-
tion of the People of the Book with whom the progressive Islamists
entered into a wilayah were people with an intense commitment to bring-
ing people together by destroying all that has separated Muslim from
Muslim, Christian from Christian and Muslim from Christian, In doing
so they gave expression to another form of wilayah, wilayah as solidarity,
this solidarity they needed to look no further than the example of
Muhammad and the Qur'an.

Muhammad and Solidarity with the Oppressed

Given the Qur'an’s own option for ‘the people” in general and for the
oppressed in particular, in a context of oppression the highest form of
righteousness is praxis in the service of the wronged and exploited, The
idea of active and organized solidarity with the oppressed received
expression in Muhammad’ life long before his prophethood.

This is evident both from his participation in what came to be known
as the Alliance of the Virtuous, and his own glowing references to it long
after he became a prophet. Ibn Sa'd (1967, 1, p. 144) narrates that a vis-
iting Yemenite merchant had sold some expensive goods to a leading fig-
ure of the clan of Sahm in Mecca. The Sahmite refused to pay the agreed
price. Despite being a visitor in Mecca, without any allies to whom he
could turn for help, the merchant stood on the slope of Mount Qubays
and appealed to the Quraysh to ensure that justice was done. In
response, several tribes met in the home of ‘Abd Allah ibn Jud‘an, Here
they decided to found an alliance for the furtherance of justice and the

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Qur'an. Liberstion & Pluralism

protection of the weak. They vowed that, at every act of oppression in
‘Mecca, they would remain in solidarity with the wronged and exploited
until justice was done, irrespective of whether the oppressors and
exploiters were from among the Quraysh or not: "By God as long as the
‘ocean drenches wool we will be with the oppressed until they receive rec-
ompense for their rights and we see that they also receive equal treat-
ment’ (ibid.). In the end, the Sahmite was compelled to pay his debt.
ibayr and Abu Talib,
to the signing of the pact, later commented ‘I was present in the house of
‘Abd Allah ibn Jud‘an at so excellent a pact that I would not exchange it
for a herd of red camels; [the clans of] Hashim, Zuhrah and Taym swore
to side with the oppressed till the sea drenched wool and if now, in Islam,
I were summoned unto it, I would gladly respond’ (ibid.).

The political dynamics of Hijaz altered dramatically with
Muhammad's announcement of his prophethood and in Mecca the

Muhammad, who had accompanied his uncles, Z

mu'minun themselves became the community that was wronged, In
‘Medina the struggle for justice and a faith promising to secure it was
taken further by a community consisting of the dispossessed and their
supporters. Given that this community itself comprised the exiled and
oppressed, one does not find any clear precedent in this period in
Muhammad's life as a prophet. The incident narrated above, however,
does indicate that Muhammad would not have been found wanting had
such an occasion arisen.

The Exodus Paradigm of Solidarity

In chapters 2 and 3 I referred to the popularity of the Exodus paradigm
among people of faith engaged in the struggle in South Africa, This
digm has regularly been invoked in a broad spectrum of Muslim scholar-
ship, ranging from the mystical and philosophical to the political, South
African Islam though, appears unique in the use of the Exodus paradigm
to invoke unambiguous support for solidarity with the marginalized and
oppressed religious Other. The chapter of the Qur'an named ‘Story’,
which deals with the Exodus paradigm, says the Call, ‘explains relation-
ships with the oppressed who do not lead Islamic or righteous lives" (Call
of Islam 1987)

The Qur'an recounts the story of Moses and Pharaoh in several
chapters, with different fragments scattered throughout them,” from the
very early life of Moses in Egypt and exile, to his encounter with God at
the burning bush, his engaging Pharaoh and his sorcerers and his

194

Redefining Com

cs & Opponents

demands that the Israelites be freed. The account continues with their
subsequent liberation, the drowning of Pharaoh and his army, the rebel-
liousness and Aufr of Israelites in the desert and God's revelation to
Moses on Mount Sinai. Throughout all of this Moses has the compan-
ionship of his brother, Aaron. The account concludes with Moses’ death
as the Israelites are about to enter the Promised Land.

For present purposes, there is a single theme in the Exodus paradigm
as recounted in the Qur'an: the active solidarity of God himself and of
‘Moses with the religious or actively rejecting Other. Given that I am deal-
ing with the question of solidarity with the marginalized and the suffer-
ing, my essential concern here is with the Aufr or otherwise of Israelites
prior to liberation and during their journey into the promised land. The
following texts deal with this subject:

But none save a few of his people declared their faith in Moses,
{while others held back] for fear of Pharaoh and their great ones, lest
they persecute them: for, verily, Pharaoh was mighty on earth and
was, verily, of those who are given to excesses.

And Moses said: ‘O my people! If you believe in God, place your
trust in Him ~ if you have [truly} surrendered yourselves unto Him!"

Whereupon they answered: ‘In God have we placed our trust! © our
Sustainer, make us not a plaything for evildoing folk." (10:83-5)

‘And we brought the Israclites across the sea} and thereupon Pharsoh
and his hosts pursued them with vehement insolence and tyranny,
until [they were overwhelmed by the waters of the sea. And] when
he was about to drown, [Pharaoh] exclaimed: “I have come to
believe that there is no deity save Him in whom the Israelites believe,
and I sm of those who surrender themselves to Him!" (10:90)

‘The Israelites’ faith or lack of it is a rather unexplored theme in qur'anic
exegetical literature, When the subject is dealt with in the Qur'an, as in
these texts, then the exegeses tend to focus on some other related issue.”
Despite the lack of attention to this question among the exegetes, there is
consensus that, even before their liberation, the vast majority of Israelites
did not have faith in Moses or in God. The exegetes suggest that this
verse was revealed in order to console Muhammad, who also yearned for
his own people to have faith in him. In the same manner that his people
refused to believe in him, the Israelites refused to believe in Moses
(al-Razi 1990, 17, p. 150; al-Nasafi n.d., 3, p. 277).

The Qur'an refers to a dhurriyyah as the only ones who had faith in
‘Moses (10:83). This is interpreted as ‘a small or insignificant number’

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Qurtan, Liberation G& Pluralism

(ibn ‘Abbas, cited in al-Razi 1990, 17, p. 150; al-Nasafi n.d., 3, p. 277),
‘their off-spring’ (al-Zamakhshari n.d., 2, p. 364, al-Baidawi n.d., 3, p.
277) or a ‘few of the youth’ (Rida 1980, 11, p. 469).

‘As for Moses’ pleas to his people to place their trust in God if they
are truly muslims, the exegetes argue that this is simply a plea and docs
not mean his people actually had faith (Rida 1980, 11, p. 470). The ones
who prayed that they do not ‘become a trial for the people who are
oppressors’ (Qur’an 10:85) and to be “saved by your mercy from the peo-
ple who are kafirun” (10:86) were the dhurriyyah who actually believed in
Moses. In 10:90 Pharaoh talks about believing in the deity in whom the
Israelites have faith. Ibn “Abbas says Israelites, in this case, refers to the
few companions of Moses who actually believed (n.d., 2, p. 282). Al-
Razi, referring to the propensity of the Israelites towards idolatry, says
that Pharaoh actually contributed to his destruction by his last minute
proclamation of faith in the deity of the Israelites (al-Razi 1990, 17,
p. 162).

‘The Qur'an frequently refers to the persistence of the ufr of the
Israelites and their general recalcitrance throughout the journey to the
Promised Land. Despite witnessing numerous miracles, including their
own liberation, very few among them (26:67) really believed in Moses"
call. Instead they sculpted an idol (2:51; 20:85-97) and, in speaking to
Moses, they regularly referred to God as "your Lord’: ‘Pray, then, to your
Lord that He bring forth for us aught of what grows from the earth’
(2:61). Their hearts were hardened, the Qur'an says, ‘and became like
rocks, or even harder’ (2:74). On being asked to fight in defence of their
freedom, they told Moses: ‘Go forth, then, you and your Lord, and fight,
both of you! We, behold, shall remain here’ (5:24). They taunted Moses
‘we shall not believe you until we see God face to face’ (2:55),
Immediately after this, they are told by God to "partake of the good things
which We have provided for you as sustenance’ (2:57). Despite rebelling

yet again, they are still invited to ‘enter this land and eat of its food as you
may desire, abundantly’ (2:58; 7:161). Nothing that came to the Israelites
in terms of liberation and sustenance was as a consequence of their own
faith: ‘And had it not been for God's favour upon you and His grace, you
‘would surely have found yourselves among the lost’ (2:64)

The Themes of the Exodus Paradigm

‘There are several themes in God and Moses’ dealings with Pharaoh and
his supporters, on the one hand, and with the Israelites, on the other, that
are very significant in proposing a hermeneutic of pluralism for liberation,

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Redefining Comrades & Opponents

1, Neither God, nor Moses, abandoned the Israclites before they

reached the Promised Land despite their recalcitrance in kufr.

An effective distinction was made in the response to the kufr of the

Israelites and that of Pharaoh and his supporters.

3. Freedom was portrayed as a condition for the worship of God without
necessarily leading to it

4, During the period of slavery, Moses’ prophetic responsibility was
essentially to act in solidarity with the Israelites, rather than to preach
to them.

5. Moses did not offer his people a balm to heal the wounds of oppres-
sion. Instead, he acted in solidarity with them in order to secure their
liberation

6. Solidarity with the Israelites meant taking sides against Pharaoh and
his supporters

7, Acting in solidarity with the oppressed and marginalized and against
those whom the Qur'an describes as the murrafun (ostentatious) or
mustakbirun (arrogant) does not militate against the all-embracing
grace of God or the universality of His prophets’ mission.

In looking at each of these themes, I shall relate them to the quest for a
theology which liberates in general and to apartheid South Africa and the
struggle for liberation specifically.

Remaining with the Oppressed Despite their Non-Belief

Despite the vehemence and persistence of the Auf of the Israelites, nei-
ther God nor Moses abandoned them before they reached the sacred
land. Moses, ‘the Speech of God’, is entrusted with the task of offering
them his active and ongoing solidarity in the face of a tyrannical Pharaoh
and their persistent and ever-growing kufr ~ kufr being manifested both as
rejection and as ingratitude. It was this ingrate and rejecting people about
whom the Qur'an on several occasions speaks as having been distin-
guished by God over others, (2:47; 5:20) because of the oppression they
endured (2:49; 7:137)." To this community of exploited, with their

propensity towards idolatry, God promises His grace and undertakes to
establish them on the earth, to make them the leaders and to make them
inheritors (28:5). The Israelites were ‘saved from the awful calamity [of
bondage], and God succoured them, so that [in the end] it was they who
achieved victory’ (37:115-6). Finally, they were placed in ‘a most goodly
abode’ (10:93). In all of these we find a perfect example of God's
unbounded and unqualified solidarity with those who are enslaved, mar-
ginalized and oppressed.

jor

Qurtan, Liberation G& Pluralism

The Themes of the Exodus Paradigm

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Redefining Comrades & Opponents

1, Neither God, nor Moses, abandoned the Israclites before they

reached the Promised Land despite their recalcitrance in kufr.

An effective distinction was made in the response to the kufr of the

Israelites and that of Pharaoh and his supporters.

3. Freedom was portrayed as a condition for the worship of God without
necessarily leading to it

4, During the period of slavery, Moses’ prophetic responsibility was
essentially to act in solidarity with the Israelites, rather than to preach
to them.

5. Moses did not offer his people a balm to heal the wounds of oppres-
sion. Instead, he acted in solidarity with them in order to secure their
liberation

6. Solidarity with the Israelites meant taking sides against Pharaoh and
his supporters

In looking at each of these themes, I shall relate them to the quest for a
theology which liberates in general and to apartheid South Africa and the
struggle for liberation specifically.

Remaining with the Oppressed Despite their Non-Belief

jor

Que

. Liberation & Pluralism

The Distinction Between Pharaoh’s Kufr

and that of the Israelites

‘There is a marked difference in the Qur’an’s tone when commenting on
the kufr of Pharaoh and that of the Israelites. The comment on the for-
mer is distinguished by a vehemence, that of the latter by a gentleness,
One gets an unmistakable impression that, in the case of Pharaoh, the
Qur'an deals with an incorrigible ingrate who has to pay a frightening
price for elevating himself to godhood and oppressing others in the
process (7:130). In the case of the Israelites, Moses pleads, reminds and
cajoles rather than threatens or curses (7138-41; 160-5), Qur'an
7:136-7 reflects this; in 7:136, referring to Pharaoh and his followers, the
Qur'an says “We took retribution from them . . . because they belied our
verses and were heedless of them.” In direct contrast to this, the very next
verse, referring to the Israelites, another rejecting and ingrate folk, says
‘And we made the people who were oppressed to inherit the eastern parts
of the land and the western parts thereof which we have blessed. Thus,
the fair word of your Lord was fulfilled for the Israelites because of what
they endured. And we destroyed completely all the great works and
buildings which Pharaoh and his people erected’ (7:137)

In both of these the
wronged and, in conditions of oppression, the primacy of liberative praxis
over verbal affirmations of dogma because, in the words of Rida, ‘there is
no right greater than justice and no wrong worse than tyranny’ (1980, 4,
p. 45). Leonardo and Clodovis Boff, from the context of the struggles in
Latin America, articulate the primacy of liberative praxis as follows:
"Today we accentuate the political aspect. In future under other condi-

we see an overwhelming concern for the

tions, it will surely be different. Who knows, in a classless society, perhaps
the aspects of faith will then be most important . . . but in some other way’
(Boff 1985, p. 104)

While the primacy of liberative praxis was never emphatically articu-
lated in South African progressive Islamist discourse, a distinction was
sufr of the oppressed and that of the regime,
Exhorting the exploited and the wronged to intensify their militancy
against the regime, the Call of Islam invoked Qur'an 48:29 ‘[Muhammad
and the mu'minun} are severe towards the kuffar, gentle among them-

always made between the

selves! (Call of Islam 1985, Mustims Against the Emergency, p. 1).
Freedom and Faith

Upon his return to Egypt after his long exile and first revelation, Moses’
first words to Pharaoh were ‘Behold, we bear a message from the

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Redefining Comrades & Opponents
Sustainer of all the worlds: Let the Israelites go with us!" (Qur’an
26:16-17; 7:105). Whenever the conversation between Pharaoh and
‘Moses is narrated in the Qur'an, one finds a continuous shifting between
apparently this-worldly demands and those pertaining to the hereafter
and to faith. Thus, Pharaoh’s denial of God is linked to his own arro-
gance and claims to authority. Similarly, the Auf of the Israelites during
the period of their enslavement is portrayed as a forced inability rather
than a wilful refusal (al-Baidawi n.d, 3, p. 277; Rida 1980, 11, p, 469),

In South Africa those who identified with the oppressed similarly
refused to distinguish between their commitment to Islam and their com-
mitment to the liberation struggle. Instead, they viewed both commit-
ments as strands in a single tapestry. Those who did distinguish between
them, even if phrased as ‘Islam and politics’, in effect tacitly supported
the oppressive status quo. Here we saw the interface between ideology
and theology from both perspectives: the state invoking theology in the
service of its ideology and the marginalized invoking theology as an
extension of liberative ideology (Moosa 1989). Though liberation was
always regarded as intrinsic to salvation, none of the progressive Islamists
argued that socio-political liberation could ever be completely synony-
mous With salvation. Instead, faith and political solidarity were fused,
without one being reduced to the other.

The Prophetic Responsibility Amidst Oppression

Nowhere in the qur'anic account of Moses’ dealing with the Israelites
during the period of enslavement in Egypt does one gain the impression
that belief in @ single God as dogma was a significant clement, On the
contrary, during this period Moses’ prophetic responsibility was essentially
to act in solidarity with the Israelites rather than preaching to them. They
were only tried by God in freedom after they had inherited the earth
(7:129); only then did the exhortations to faith come (20:82).

‘The South African experience drew one’s attention to the tendency
in accommodation theology to focus on dogma as a means of avoiding an
overt liberarory political discourse even while, at a covert level, underpin-
ning the dominant and oppressive ideological discourse. Thus, accom-
modationists preached Islam to the black masses while the masses were
starving and fraternized with discredited Bantustan leaders in order to get
permits to enter black areas for missionary activity. In response to this
tendency, the progressive Islamists argued that the prophetic responsibili-
ty was to establish one’s ‘al-amiin-ness™ prior to any discussions about
dogma or faith. The only way this ‘al-amin-ness’ was going to be estab-
lished was through active solidarity with the mustad‘afun fil-ard.

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Qurvan. Liberation & Pluralism

Solidarity as Distinct from Charity

Moses, his slave origins notwithstanding, grew up in the bosom of
Pharaoh’s family amid royal splendour. It was, however, not this Moses
who acted as the liberator of his people. He spent a long period in exile
where he became an ordinary labourer, once again a part of the under-
class of history (28:22-8). It was as a member of this class that he
returned to be with his people. Once back in Egypt, he appealed to
Pharaoh, not to improve the conditions of his people's slavery, but to let
them go free. Moses” story with his people could have been otherwise: he
could have remained with the ‘ostentatious’ and the ‘arrogant’ and uti-
lized his position of influence to improve the lot of his people. However,
because the entire Pharaonic system was based on injustice and corup-
tion, he chose the path of solidarity rather than that of charity.

In the South African context of the 1980s and the struggles in the
townships, there was no need f
the marginalized, because they were an intrinsic part of them. Alluding
to this shared marginalization and solidarity and its absence among the
more affluent sectors of the Muslim community, the Call of Islam

Muslims to recur to the oppressed and

commented:

In the townships Muslims and Christians depend on each other for
survival. Some Muslims in other areas, in the absence of a real com-
munity, try 10 compensate by speaking of ‘Muslim interests’,
Islamic states" and ‘our identity’. They feel they are Muslim when
Ahmad Deedat attacks other religions. They have no time for toler-
ance towards the ‘narara’ {Christians} or *kaafir’, (Call of Islam
1987, p. 5)

In South Africa, particularly with the introduction of tricameralism, we
also witnessed numerous government schemes to ease the burden of the
exploited while maintaining the essentially discriminatory and unjust
nature of the regime. In direct opposition to this, progressive Islamists
chose solidarity with the oppressed, shared marginalization and a common
struggle directed towards the actual, not seeming, removal of injustice.
This implied an appreciation of the structural causes of poverty and
human degradation and a commitment to eliminate these. “Well-intended
acts of charity’, they argued, ‘could be deceptive and militate against self-
growth and the awareness of people's intrinsic dignity’ (Call of Islam 1987,
P. 9). The following quotation from a Call manual for its activists describes
its views on how a naive awareness of poverty leads to a condescending
‘assistentialism’ that does not address the causes of human suffering

Redefining Comrades & Opponents

‘We must go beyond giving a piece of bread to the little ones who
knock on our doors . . . Saying ‘yes’ to them may make us feel good
but does not solve the problem. One finds business people spending
huge amounts on charity and it makes them feel very good. Nobody
asks how come they have so much money . . . We must understand
that if we choose solidarity with the poor that our option has a political
character in so far as it means attacking structures and making deci-
sions to take concrete actions to help specific clasees. (1988, p. 33)

Solidarity with the oppressed, furthermore, implies a recognition of them
as agents of their liberation with their own resources to draw on. The real
question, as the Boff brothers point out, is ‘what praxis will actually and
not seemingly help?" (1985, p. 4)

Solidarity Against the Oppressor

‘The option for the weak has serious implications for the oppressor and
the Qur'an does not avoid this. The fulfilment of the aspirations of the
oppressed requires the realization of the fears of the oppressors. ‘And We
wish to bestow Our grace upon those who had been oppressed in the
earth, to make thenrthe rulers and to make them the inheritors, to estab-
lish them in the land. And We let Pharaoh, Haman and their supporters
experience that which they feared,’ (Qur’an 28:5-6). It is evident that
throughout the Qur'an there is a Seif that must be sustained and
strengthened and an Other that must be relentlessly opposed, preferably
through gentle discourse or, should this fail, by any other means, Moses
‘was told to address Pharaoh in a gentle manner (20:44). When persua-
sion failed though, we see how, eventually, freedom for Israelites was
contingent on Pharaoh's destruction (7:138). ‘And thus were they van-
quished there and then, and became utterly humiliated’ (7:119) when
God ‘caused him and all who were with him to drown {in the sea)’
(17:103). Such was ‘what happened in the end to those spreaders of cor-
ruption!” (7:103).""

In South African Muslim liberatory discourse too, one finds distine-
tions made within the framework of the reinterpreted theological cate-
gories of mu'min, muslim and kafir. While the progressive Islamists did
not articulate these distinctions at a public level it is evident that they
refrained from using the term Aafir to apply to the oppressed religious
Other and withheld the appellation muslim from the collaborating reli-
gious Self.” Careful reflection on their rhetoric, though, reveals that all
the qur’anic vituperation against the Aafir was reserved for, and unleashed
against, the apartheid regime and all its supporters, irrespective of their

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Qur Liberation & Pluralism

formal religious affinities. On the other hand, all the texts consoling,
encouraging and exhorting the muc'minun and the muslimun were applied
to the wronged, irrespective of their formal faith commitments, or even
absence of them.

‘The categoric struggle against the oppressor Other is at odds with the
lack of specificity that characterizes much liberal interreligious discourse,
including that of Muslim liberals. ‘This discourse, focusing on the language
of peace and reconciliation, seeks to arrive at fundamental general ethical
criteria that appeal to the common humanity of all, including that of the
Pharaoh. While a theology of liberation remains rooted in the notion of the
sacredness of all human beings, it would argue for specificity in any context
of domination and subjugation. This specificity is particularly important
when the vague affirmation 0 's humanity ~ oppressor and
‘oppressed ~ serves to arrest or to hamper the freedom, and therefore
humanity, of both. In response to the question, “Whose humamum?" 1 wish
to echo the argument of Gustavo Gutierrez that ‘the poor represent solidar-
ity with humanity in the historical project of the quest for new ways of
becoming human, ‘To be in solidarity with the poor is not an option to be
particular, but an option to be universal’ (cited in Chopp 1989, p. 61).

f everyon

The Universality of God’s Concern

While the jumanum is preferentially focused on the exploited, poor and
marginalized, the struggle for liberation also affords the oppressor an
opportunity to be free, “To be with the oppressed’, says the Call, ‘means
being against the oppressor — as oppressor. The struggle against the
oppressor, supports the liberation of the oppressed and gives the oppres-
sor the option to liberate him or herself and to become more human’
(1988, p. 34) This is why Moses’ message to Pharaoh is not confined to
the liberation of Israelites, but also deals with the illusions of power and
immortality that enslaved Pharaoh himself. It is precisely because of the
universality of God’s concem that options have to be exercised for some
and against others. “And if God had not enabled people to defend them-
selves against one another, corruption would surely overwhelm the earth:

but God is limitless in His bounty unto all the worlds’ (Qur’an 2:251),

1 am in agreement with Gustavo Gutierrez, who argues that the poor
and oppressed ‘represent universal solidarity with all humanity in the his-
torical project of the quest for new ways of becoming human’ (cited in
Chopp 1989, p. 61). The option of solidarity with the poor and oppressed,
far from being an option for the particular, is really one for inclusivism and
universality. There is no contradiction in God’s being the Lord of

Redefining Comrades & Opponents

humankind and His option for the downtrodden; it is in the option of the
latter that the former finds expression. When a handful of people pursue
ideological options and exploitative economic practices that prevent the
vast majority of humankind from living out their full humanity, then those
few also have their own humanity impaired in the process

Conclusion: A Liberative Praxis

‘The texts dealing with the wilayah of the religious Other, when under-
stood in their historical contexts, offer a radically different perspective 10
that which a casual and decontextualized reading renders. Far from pre
venting Muslims from entering into relationships of solidarity with the
religious Other, they actually facilitate and inspire the progressive
Islamists’ pursuit of a hermeneutic that accommodates the religious
Other and liberative praxis. In the Exodus paradigm, we see how this
support for solidarity with the Other, though, was not limited to the reli-
gious Other, but also embraced those among the poor and downtrodden
who actively rejected the religious beliefs of islam.

‘The context of this pluralism, though, was not a vague commitment
to all forms of Otherness; indeed, some forms of Otherness are vehe-
mently opposed and the Qur’an does not hesitate to encourage the sever-
est forms of opposition to them. Instead, the Que’an roots its own plural-
ism in a common struggle against oppression and injustice. Rather than a
fashionable interfaith dialogue, we see an unarticulated solidarity with the
marginalized and exploited that crosses narrow doctrinal lines. The basis
of the pluralism being postulated in the Qur'an is, one may say, liberative
‘praxis.

Notes

1, Eg, Qurtan 2:107; 445, 173; 614, St: 73: 974, 116: 11-20, 113; 13:16, 375 17:97; 1826,
50, 102; 25:18; 2922, 4; 32-4 33:17: 39:3; 426, 9,31; 45:19,

2. Ege Qur'an 6:14; 11:20, 113; 13:16; 17-97; 1850, 102; 25:18; 2941; 39:3: 42:6, 9, 46

3. ton “Abbas, (n. 2, p. 186) in hs explanation of this verse suggests that itis circumscribed
bby events in Medina atthe tre. The need to characteriza a mu‘nin (believer) was, according
to him, necessitated by the need to differentiate beeween them and the munofigun who
claimed to be Muslim, but were unenthusiasoc about the Islanve injunctions such as the for-
imal prayers and the poor due. (See also Rida 1980, 6, p. 441.)

4. The following account of one aspect of this personal relavonship appears in al-Bukhari and
‘Muslim: ‘lis narrated about ‘A’shah that she said to ‘Urwah: “My nephew! We [God's fami-
ty] spent our days sometimes seeing three successive moons without the oven being lic in our
houses,” "How did you remain alive then?”, Urwah asked. “A'shah repled: “We lived on
dates and water. indeed there were Christian neighbours of God who had some milk catde.
They [occasionally] sent him mik as a gift and he used to give some of it to us alto (cited in

203

Qur'an, Liberation & Pluralism

Nomani 1975, 1, p. 277). An example of a warm communal relationship with the religious
(Other is that of the Musims who soughe asylum from the persecution of the Quraysh in the
fifth year of Muhammad's prophethood among the Christans of Abyssinia Here ‘they were
sale from the dangers of both apostasy and persecution’ (Ibn Hisham nid. 2p. 146),

5. Citing al Raghib, a-Tabataba’i argues that wloyah is the development of wo elements to
the level where nothing intervenes between them. This implies closeness in terms of space,
religion, friendship, assistance and trust (nd. 5, p: 368)

‘6 AbBaidawi's opinion ix interesting because it implies that there are two kinds of wilayoh,
which are not mutually exclusive

7. Referring to Qur'an 327. abRazi cites the opinion of Muqatl, who says that the verse was
revealed about Havb ibn Abi Balts'sh and others who belnended the Jews and the mushrkun
and informed them of the war preparations of the Muslims, in the secret hope that the Jews
‘would overpower Muhammad (al-Razi 1990, 7, p. 11; al-Tabataba' nd. 19, p. 234)

4. In his commentary on this text al-Razi (1990, 12. p. 16) supplies 2 lengthy account on the
authority of Ibn ‘Abbas regarding the deferential treatment of the Jewish nobiity when engag-
ing in extra-marital sexual relations 25 well 3s the quesbon of disparity in blood money. The
mater was referred to Muhammad by a group of distinguished Jews who undertook to abide
by tis judgment. However, they subsequently rmected the egalitarian path which he deter-
‘mined in his judgment. (See also al-Taboraba’s nd. 5, pp. 357H.: Rida 1980. 6, p. 422.)

9. Al-Zamakhshan, for example, explains ths expression thus: ‘Except that you have reason
Xo fear them or some other reason necessitating being on your guard... The meaning of
such wloyoh is an apparent relauionshvp whvie one's heart is firm on enmity and antagonism’
(rd 1p. 351)

10. eis important to note that organizations Hike the Call of Islam were, in addidon to their
afftation, also entives existing in their own right. They had their own ideological training
Programmes and a host of other Iilanic acuwties, which they conducted quite apart from
heir involvement with the rel@ous Other Thus. .n these organuavons, the debate did not
centre on the permissibilcy of interfaith solidarity for jusbce. but on how best to protect
‘one's faith and pve expression to Islam within that relstonship

1. Some have argued that youAina’ refers to 2 blood relative. This opinion considered weak
because most of the people of Mecca were related to Muhammad ‘despite the fact that the
blood of the huffar had become legate for them’ (abRazi 1990. 10, p. 229), AlRazi alto
deduces a principle from ths text that anyone who enters to an agreement with someone with
whom the Muslims have entared into treaty. covered under the protecoon of that treaty

12. Some of the exegeter have suggested that the people referred to in this text are the
‘Aslamiyyun tribe wich whom Muhammad had an agreement At the time of his departure
from Mecca, he took leave from Hila! bin ‘Uwaymir abAslami and undertook ‘never to harm
him nor support anyone against him. Nor anyone in an alliance with him or who sought
‘refuge with him’ (al-Razi 1990, 10, p. 229). ton ‘Abbas. on the other hand, says that the refer=
fence is to Banu Bakr ibn Ziyad Manah, while Mugacl says they are Khazv‘sh and Khuzaymah
‘bn ‘Abd Manah (ib).

13, Ablfahani has argued that an exception was made of those who did not fight Muhammad
because they feared Godt yer they were unable to fight the kuffor because they wore related,
‘or because they left their children and wives among them They feared that # they fought
‘them then their families would be attacked (al-Razi 1990, 10. p. 230).

14. Referring to Qur'an 5:57, ibn “Abbas says that refers to Rifa'ah ibn Zaid and Sumaid ibn
ab-Marth (nd, |, p. $28) who overdy daplayed an allepance to Islam but were subsequently
found to be hypocrites Some Mushms persisted in their fondness for these Ewa despite their
apparent nifog (hypocrisy.

15, It fs thus not a comcidence that the Durban-based International Islamic Propagation
Centre and its founder. Ahmad Deedat. the world's most prominent Muslim evangelist,
should also have displayed consistent public support for the KwaZulu homeland government

204

Redefining Comrades & Oppone

and its leader, Gatsha Burhelezi This occurred at a time when progrestive religious forma-
‘ions advocated non-collaboration with al the apartheid structures

16, Al-Tabari narrates an account from Suddi chat on the eve of Uhud (625) 2 group among
the Muslims came under intense pressure and they feared that the kuffor would overpower
them. One man told his companion: ‘shall connect with some of the Jews, seek my security
from them and become a Jew with them. for I fear thar the Jews would be victorious over
us’, Another sal “As for me, | shall connect to so-and-so among the Christians in a part of
Syria, seek security among them and become a Christan’ (1954. 6, p. 275).

17. This is evident from Muhammad's response to ‘Uxbah ibn Raby'ah. an emissary from the
Quraysh when the former was stil i Mecca. "Utbah is reported to have told Muhammad:
“You are in an honoured postion in our tribe and possess a high status in our lineage. But
you have introduced amongst cur people a grave matter by which you have created dissen-
sion in our communty. undermined our prudence. witied our godt and religion and declared
four forefathers unbelievers who are doomed to hell Listen to me: | am going to offer you
‘some options to consider 10 that you may accept some of chem: © son of my brother if you
want money by this matter which you have brought unto us, we wall collect for you of our
money til you become the richest amongst us. And if you want honour. we will make you
chief and overlord over us, deciding on nothing without you. And if you want dominion, we
will make you a king over us" (Bashir 1978. pp. 154-6). Muhammad responded by reading
{rom Surah Ho-nin and Funulat and then turned to ‘Usbah: “You have heard, © father of ak
Walid, what you have heard. | wil leave you with that’ (ibid).

1B, The change that Islam had brought about in the basis of relationships is seen in the
‘response of Muhammad ibn Mastamah when tis tribe, Banu al-Nadir. exprested surprise chat
hhe could be the bearer of an ulematum to them from the Muslims: ‘Hearts have changed and
Islam has wiped out old alliances’ he & reported to have said (Rodinson 1900, p. 192),

19. The suggested sebob obnuzul of thes text has some profound implicabons for its meaning in
an unjust and racally diaded society Firs. there the idea that drzcrrmapon on the grounds
of lineage, inchiding racer, is kuff. Qur'an 399 speaks about ‘a secton from the People of the
Book’ who ‘might cause you [the Muslims) to renounce the truth after you have come to
believe {in i] while 3100 walls the believers that folowing the guidance of a secon of the
People of the Book will cause them to turn to huff after enon W dws ‘tuft after ian’ is the crime
of tribals after the universality of Ili, asi suggested by al-Zamakhshari (nd. 1. p. 393), ak
Razi (1990, 6p. 422) and Rida (1980, 6 . 441) then it follows that ractem and tribals is indeed
‘uf and the stravghe path is the path of unversabty and non-racaktm. Second ath or bee does
(70% enly pertain fo the unseen or to dogma, but has everything to do with attitudes to other
people, While the cbeliet” char Aws and Khazraj fll prey co ‘when the revelations are recit-
‘ed unco you and His mestenger 15 in your mit had nothing to do with dogma, i had every-
thing to do with atotudes of cultural and tribal arrogance

20. The most important of there are Qur'an 2-47-73: 7:103-62; 10:74-92; 20:9.
2610-69; 27:7-14: 28:1-42

21. A number of exegeses on Qur'an 10:90, for example, focus on the question of the non-
acceptability of repentance at the ume of death

72. There has been some suggeston that the verse decuszed here actualy refers to the dhur-
yah of Pharaoh, Ali the exegetical works perused, however. while taking note of this supges-
tion, agree thac the preposition hi" in dhurnyyh from ‘his people’ refers to Moses, ‘because
is the nearer of the two referents [Le. Moses and Pharaoh] and because itis reported chat
thote who believed in Moses were from among the Israchtes' (a-Razi 1990, 17, p. 150),

23. As i to emphasize the point that this ditoncton 1 conbngent upon 3 parvcular expen
lence and not intrinsic to race oF ratonhood. the Qur'an immediately afterwards says that on
the Day of Requital ties of blood will be f nc avail (See also Qur'an 2:122-3)

24. First coined by Ebrahim Rasool, this term refers to the widely believed idea that
‘Muhammad was referred to as aban (\terally, ‘the trustworthy, ‘the credible) by dhe gen-

205

Qurvan. Liberation & Pluralism

‘eraity of the Quraysh long before his cliims to prophethood. The term war often used in
Call of Islam circles,

25. Islamic theology has never had any great need #0 ju
of the armed
The African National
resorted to the armed struggle when all avenues of peaceful protest and negotiation had
been closed by the apartheid regime (Mandela 1994, p. 61; Benson 1966, pp. 234-40)

26 There are several reasons why ths was never clearly spelt out the distaste for a controversy
around degra at 3 time when energies were needed for a concrete struggle, the enormous
potential of such a controversy to abenate the (rom the progressive
Inlamists, and the need to secure the support 0 f active opposition of the traditional
clerics in the liberation struggle

fy an armed struggle. The legitimacy
rugale against apartheid was seen a: telfevident in progressive blamic circles

Congress. though, has always been at pains to point out that only

ajorty of Muslims

206

FROM the WILDERNESS
to the PROMISED LAND

Never, never and never agnin shall it be that this beautiful land will experience the
‘oppression of ane by another and suffer the indignity of being the skunk of the world.
The sun shall never set on so gloriou vvement. Let freedom reign. God
bless Africa!

Nelion Rolihlahla Mandela at his inauguration as president

From Confrontation to Negotiation

nodded my head in somewhat condescending acknowledgement when

Nazeem Louw told me that they had received a message from ‘out-
side’: not to worry, they would not sit out their full term in prison, they
would be out sooner rather than later. It was in November 1988. I had
just consulted with a number of combatants from Umkhonto we Sizwe,
the military wing of the ANC, in prison. They were found guilty of ter-
rorism and I was giving evidence for the defence in mitigation. “These
poor kids! How courageous and, simultaneously, so naive!

Mercifully, I was the uninformed

It was early in the morning of the second day of February 1990;

Parliament was being opened and a short distance away a few hundred of
us had gathered to demand the unbanning of the ANC and the release of
all political prisoners. Some reporters came up to us, excitedly saying that
De Klerk was about to announce exactly that. We were utterly bewil-
dered, The march proceeded, the same placards were displayed and the

prepared speeches were replaced with incoherent mutterings, No one had
prepared us for freedom. In the words of Allister Sparks, ‘there was a

mixture of trauma, exhilaration, and disbelief as different groups struggled

207

+ Liberation & Pluralism

to come to terms with change 30 profound (1995, p. 9). The Call of
Islam hailed the impending release of Nelson Mandela as a ‘victory for
the struggling masses of this country’ (Muslim Views, March 1990, p. 4).

The following three years before the country's historic free and fair
elections, and the subsequent two years leading to the adoption of a final
constitution for a non-racial, non-sexist and democratic South Africa
were going to be as tumultuous as ever; debates about Self and Other
were going to re-emerge with @ vengeance, this time fuelled by what
‘they’ are doing to ‘us’ in Iraq, later Bosnia, and even later, Chechnya.
Could the theology of confrontation be converted into one of construc-
tive negotiation with the regime? Those on the bus journeying to free-
dom, who truly understood what the journey to the stop called ‘non-
racialism’ was all about knew that this was not the time to disembark. At
the very least, there was another stop called ‘non-sexism’. Who defended
the humanizing of the religious and oppressed Other but now felt com-
pelled to defend the dehumanizing of the gendered and equally
oppressed Other? And in the shadows were the clerics, waiting to stake
their claims for the patronage of a legitimate state, at long last giving
expression to frustrated yearnings for institutional contro! over the lives
of the believers,

Preparing for Freedom

From late 1990 it became evident that the apartheid regime was follow-
ions with the ANC and all
other parties while actively pursuing a programme of violence by proxy

ing a twin strategy of entering into negoti

against their supporters throughout the country. Thus, the country wit-
nessed a series of seemingly motiveless killings. Trains were stormed by
armed masked men and passengers indiscriminately gunned down. The
homes of alleged ANC supporters were attacked and the inhabitants
murdered. Wakes at the funerals of these victims were stormed, perpetu-
ating the cycle of violence. Even more horrific during this period were a
number of massacres perpetrated by the police and army, or committed
in their presence, often by armed men who entered the township under
their escort.

While these events had the potential to throw South Africa into a
Jong-drawn-out race war, they nearly always succeeded in focusing the
minds of all the participants on the inevitability of a negotiated settlement.
After six years of secret negotiations, fourteen months from the unbanning

of the liberation movements, May 1991 saw the first round of
ANC-Government talks, Mandela, ever the leader, opened the discussion:

From the Wildersess to the Promised Land

1 explained that the ANC had from its inception in 1912 always
sought negotiations with the government in power. Mr De Klerk, for
his part, suggested that the system of separate development had been
conceived as a benign idea, but had not worked in practice. For that,
he said, he was sorry and hoped that negotiations would make
amends. It was not an apology for apartheid, but he went further
than any NP [National Parry} leader had. (Mandela 1994, p. 570)

If De Klerk were a theologian, then his theology would be appropriately
described as one of accommodation, It was not a principled commitment
to do the right thing. Until now there has been no sense that the man has
understood the enormous pain he and his party caused, nor the havoc
that they played with people’s lives. It was just a project that did not
quite work out; conditions had changed and they were going to do the
useful thing. We shall see how much his attitude had in common with
Muslim theology of accommodation.

The meeting produced what came to be known as the ‘Groote
Schuur Minute’, committing both sides to a peaceful process of negotia:
tions and the government to lifting the State of Emergency, which was
still in effect. The ANC further called for the setting up of an interim
government that would oversee the election of a Constituent Assembly to
draw up a new constitution for the country.

In the Muslim community these ‘talks about talks’ were supported by
most of the major organizations such as the MYM, Call and MJC. The
single exception was Qibla, who continued engaging in the revolutionary
rhetoric of the 1980s. In this they had allies in the Pan-Africanist
Congress (PAC) and the Azanian People’s Organization (Azapo), who
argued for the formation of a united front to fight for a Constituent
Assembly prior to any negotiations with the government, In the ranks of
the ANC itself, disquiet was growing about the lack of unity among the
oppressed and some sections of the PAC expressed concern about the
inevitability of a negotiated settlement and their being politically margin-
alized. The ANC, past masters of "broad church’ politics under the slo-
gan of ‘maximum unity of the oppressed’, and eternally confident of
bringing as many players on board as possible, often with an unstated
objective of co-opting them on to the organization's own agenda, mooted
the idea of a united front against the apartheid regime. In November
1991 ‘socialists, Muslim activists and comfortable capitalists rubbed
ront

shoulders over three days at the historic Patriotic United
Conference in Durban . . . to find common ground for a future democra-
tic South Africa’ (Muslim Views, November 1991, p. 1). This, the largest

209

Qur'an, Liberstion & Pluralism

gathering of anti-apartheid forces, with only Azapo boycotting it, was
jointly convened by the ANC and PAC. At the conclusion of the confer-
ence, the ANC and PAC announced a joint approach to the constitution-
al process and negotiations with the regime. The fact that all was not well
in the erstwhile hardline camp was already evident at the conference
when a letter from the external wing of the PAC was distributed. In it,
the internal PAC was condemned for participating in the Patriotic Front.
‘This internal dissension intensified and one month later the first earnest
negotiations with the government about the New South Africa, the
Convention for a Democratic South Africa (Codesa), commenced with-
‘out the PAC, Azapo or the Inkatha Freedom Party (EFP).

Codesa created five working groups to prepare the way for a second
round of more substantial talks scheduled for May 1992. These groups
would examine questions of a free political climate, the future of the
nal principles such as federalism and the installa-
tion of an interim government. The parties agreed that decisions would
be taken by ‘sufficient consensus’ which, although undefined, meant
agreement between the ANC and the government

In these negotiations the common phenomenon of a disproportion-

Bantustans, constitut

ately large Muslim presence was also evident, with nearly thirteen per
cent of the participants from right across the political spectrum being
Muslim, even if only in the cultural sense. One of Codesa's two chairs,
selected from among the country’s most respected judges, was Ismail
Mohammed, also a Muslim and now the Republic's Chief Justice.
Another significant event, albeit entirely symbolic, was the fact that
Codesa did not commence with Christian prayers; instead representatives
from a number of different faiths offered invocations. This was a clear
break with the past when the only religious tradition of consequence for
the state was the Dutch Reformed version of Christianity. It was, further-
more, an acknowledgement of the role of all religious communities in the
struggle against the old order and an embrace of their contribution to the
creation of a new society. All of this was televized live and there was

much consternation among conservative religious groups at the equality
of truths that it suggested, While this consternation was tempered in the
minority communities; (it was, after all, a f

e and unexpected opportuni-
ty to show off one’s own to the rest) the Afrikaans press was in full ery
‘against the heresy of equating the triune God to the ‘idols of the pagan
Jews, Christians and Hindus’. The more ‘serious’ publications from these
quarters ran lengthy debates on whether God is the same entity as Allah.
For many deeply conservative Christians, De Klerk and the NP’s inability

210

From the Wilderness to the Promised Land

to walk out during the prayers of other religions was the ultimate sign of
betrayal.

Six weeks after the opening of Codesa, this incident featured promi-
nently in right-wing electioneering in a by-election in Potchefstroom, a
small university town in the north. The NP suffered an overwhelming
defeat, prompting De Klerk to call a referendum of all white South
Africans. They were asked whether they supported ‘the continuation of
the reform process . . . aimed at a new constitution through negotiation.’
Sixty-nine per cent voted in favour and De Klerk returned to the
negotiating table.

‘When Codesa 2 convened in May, De Klerk was not going to repeat
the sin of listening to others praying and, immediately after the Christian
prayers, slipped out of the hall, to return only when all invocations were
completed. While he may have salvaged whatever remained of his reputa~
tion among conservative Christians, many Muslims were not amused.

This was the NEW leader of the NEW National Party. All the lead-
ers of the OLD National Party never recognized any other religion
except their brand of Christianity. They didn’t recognize Muslim
marriages, inheritance, and they called our children illegitimate.
Even under the NEW NATS they cannot listen to us praying. How
can they still give us religious freedom? (Call of Islam 1994, FI¥,
Codesa 2 and the Dual)

Codesa 2 collapsed after a few days, when it became clear that the NP
rejected any notion of submitting to majority rule. Under the guise of
“power sharing’, ‘needs for checks and balances’ and “the negativity of
simple majoritarianism’, the NP countered every proposal to accede to
the will of the people and demanded all sorts of vetoes for the white
minority. Meanwhile, in a political organization proud of its roots in mass
action and a trade union movement that viewed shop-floor displays of
worker strength as essential to bolster wage demands during negotiation,
numerous ANC activists and Cosatu trade unionists were growing rest-
Jess with discussions behind closed doors seemingly leading nowhere

June 16, 1992 saw the launch of a programme of rolling mass action,
which included marches, defiance campaigns and strikes. The next night
a group of IFP supporters emerged from their migrant labour hostels
near the township of Boipathong, south of Johannesburg ‘and in an orgy
of slaughter hacked, stabbed and shot thirty-eight people to death in their
homes. Among the dead were a nine-month-old baby, a child of four and
twenty-four women, one of whom was pregnant’ (Sparks 1995, p, 141)

Qur'an. Liberation & Pluralism

Many residents insisted that they saw police escorting the attackers into
the township and that white men in tracksuits directed the attacks.
Rejecting the government insistence that it was committed to peace-
fal negotiations and that it had no hand in the violence, the Call, quoting
from the Qur'an, said: ‘When it is said unto them: “Make not mischief
‘on the earth”, they said: “why, we only want to make peace”. Of surety,
they are the ones who make mischief (Call of Islam n.d., We can’t trust
the NATS, p. 1). The unshakable conviction among the vast majority of
South Africans was that so-called ‘Black-on-Black’ violence was part of a
carefully orchestrated political strategy of the apartheid regime in its
dying days, intended to weaken the ANC and it supporters. ‘This is borne
‘out today with virtually every scrap of evidence to emerge in front of the

country’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

‘The ANC and Cosstu continued with their programme of strikes and
marches throughout August and S
Bisho, the capital of the Ciskei Bantustan, led to the massacre of twenty-
nine people. The escalating violence forced the ANC and the government
to renew their negotiations, This resulted in a ‘Record of Understanding’
whereby both parties agreed to establish an independent body to review
police actions and to create a single elected Constitutional Assembly

ptember 1992, One such march into

(CA) that would negotiate a new constitution and serve as a transitional
legislature. A subsequent negotiation session in December agreed on a

five-year government of national unity with a multi-party cabinet and the

creation of a Transitional Executive Council

In April 1993 talks reconvened, with the IFP and PAC also present,
and in June a date was set for the country’s appointment with destiny:
April 1994, In November an
interim constitution, guaranteeing all citizens the right to equality irre-
spective of race, religion, gender or sexual orientation, was adopted by

our first free and democratic elections on 27

multi-party talks with an interim government in place soon thereafter

The Political Challenges

‘The social and political challenges presented to Muslims by a society
pregnant with non-racialism, non-sexism and democracy were formida-
ble. Given that the dominant issue in the period before the elections was
the question of Muslim participation therein and the old issue of joining
forces with the Auffar, for many only temporarily buried under the tidal
wave of resistance to apartheid.

The first significant opportunity for the question of solidarity with

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From the Wilderness to the Promised Land

the religious Other to emerge after 2 February 1990 was at the National
‘Muslim Conference (NMC) in May of that year. Convened by the Call,
this, the largest representative gathering of South African Muslims in the
country’s history, was intended to ‘reach out to as many Muslims as pos-
sible across the political and strategic spectrum’ and was attended by
more than six hundred delegates. Issues covered in discussions and work-
shops reflected the way the conveners had succeeded in relating their reli-
gious commitment to the here and now: attitudes to negotiations with the
apartheid regime, Muslim Personal Law (MPL), the protection of
‘Muslim institutions and freedom of religion, the right of all to shelter, a
living wage, and a decent health system, the environment (‘Will the rev-
erence which Islam has for the earth and the environment in general be
respected in a free South Africa?) and Muslims’ relationship with the
state and the religious Other.

‘The Call, unambiguously aligned with the ANC, which was then
preparing to negotiate with the government, had clearly intended the
conference to be the mechanism whereby most, if not all, Muslims would
be drawn into this process, Qibla, the PAC, the New Unity Movement
(NUM) and Azapo had by then already rejected negotiations as a ‘sell-
out’ and had called for a Constituent Assembly where the oppressed
would chart out their own future. Achmat Cassiem, explaining subse-
quently why Qibla rejected negotiations with the regime, said:

Can a thief draw up a legitimate will to let his children inherit his
stolen property . . .? Peaceful co-existence between oppressors and
oppressed does not feature on the agenda of the oppressed, and

especially not on that of Muslims. We cannot . . . direct any of our
legitimate demands to an illegitimate government. Is this too diffi-
cult to understand? . . . too difficult to digest? Or is it the sacrifices

that follow this understanding, which are too great to bear? (Muslim
Views, March 1991, p. 5)

Fatima Meer, one of the most formidable Muslim women in the liberation
struggle, in an address at the inaugural session of the
ed to the political argument against negotiations in the following vein:

‘onference, respond-

‘Those who have opposed the talks between the ANC and the govern-
ment had totally misread the situation... . Some of the mustad'afin
[oppressed) have been thrown into a cycle of suicidal violence. They
have become blinded and lost sight of their target and have become
victims of their own anger . . . It is irresponsible if this is perceived as
revolution. The time for reasoning has come. It is our duty to support

Qur'an, Liberation & Pluralism

the negotiations with all our heart and soul. (Muslim Views, May
1990, p. 9)

At the conference itself, the demonizing of the religious Other was alive
and well in the form of the persistent interventions of the Murabitun,’
who argued that exclusively Islamic solutions were the only way to solve
the problems of the Muslims and that a Aafir entering into negotiations
with another kafiris of no consequence to Muslims. Particularly offensive
to this group was an address delivered by Albie Sachs, a Jewish
Communist and presently Judge in the Constitutional Court whose night
hand had been blown off in a bomb sent by the apartheid regime. Sachs,
nevertheless, received a standing ovation.

Clearly, living side by side along with the religious Other, even being
oppressed along with them, was not sufficient to convert everyone to the
cause of coexistence, let alone an appreciation of religious Otherness
Reflecting on the use of the term hafir by the Murabitun to demonize
others at the NMC, Abdul Rashied Omar, formerly president of the
MYM and currently onam of the Claremont Main Road Mosque, said:

Despite the integrative nature of Muslim practice, [much of] their
ideological discourse continues to be couched in exclusivistic terms,
This is best symbolized in the pejorative or derogatory usage of the
Arabic term kafir. . it is an emotionally laden term skilfully manip-
uulated by conservative Muslims to conjure up extreme hatred and
abhorrence of non-Muslims

Anti-apartheid Muslim groupings which champion the cause of
4 religio-pluralistic post-apartheid South Affica will no doubt have a
massive task in transforming parochial theological perspectives which
beset their constituency. If, however, they are serious about building
aan upartheid-free South Aftica they have no choice but to face up to
this challenge. (Al-Qalam, December 1991, p. 11)

‘The extent of this challenge referred to by Omar was evident in the
response of The Majlis and some sections of the Muslim community
when rioting broke out in the Eastern Cape city of Port Elizabeth after a
rally protesting against high rents. A number of shops, some owned by
Indian Muslims, were attacked and a church whose minister was a
prominent collaborator with the apartheid regime, was set alight, The
Majlis called for jihad against the "barbaric Auffar . . . in these times of
anarchy, strife and corruption’ (10 (11), p. 7). Battle plans were drawn
up in the event of an invasion of their mosque. These plans would see the
women and their weapons, “be it an axe in hand’ (ibid,), huddling in the

214

From

to the Promised Land

basement, with the armed men guarding the windows and doors. Three-
inch-thick steel bars were erected at all entry points, to the mosque,
including windows, and these have remained in place until today.
Reinforcements, among whom it was rumoured were veterans of the
Afghanistan war against the Soviets, were called from the north of the
country and ‘were openly walking around in Port Elizabeth with rifles and
strings of bullets slung over their shoulders’ (Muslim Views, February
1991, p. 16), Hassan Solomon, referring to The Majlis’ frenzied call to
arms against the mustad’afun on the one hand and its regular denuncia-
tion of the armed struggle against apartheid, on the other, said "Their
jihad against the poor, weak and the deprived of the oppressed are con-
ducted through the barrel of the gun whilst jihad against an oppressive
regime should be done through the “proper channels™” (ibid.).

In the same way that numerous God-fearing right-wing Afrikaners
found it impossible to sce any distinction between their class, ethnic and
cultural identities on the one hand, and their religious beliefs on the
other, it did not occur to these warriors that there were ‘many [black]
Muslims from the townships involved in the rioting’ (ibid.). Despite their
blanket demonizing of all Blacks as Auffar, there were still those among
the ranks of the mmustad'afunm who continued in their attempts to reach out
to them, ‘It is high time’, wrote Adam Jack, a leading Muslim from a
nearby black township, ‘that they realized that they are also victims of
apartheid. Being outcast would be the result of their own living in isolation
and failing to recognize the issues . . . The time has come for them to rid
themselves of the infamous mentality that worries about the length of beards
when all is burning around them’ (Muslim Views, January 1991, p. 12)

‘The ability of the oppressed Muslim who is relatively new to reified
Islam to display a far more profound and humane appreciation of the
faith than those who are what Rashid Rida described as ‘ethnic Muslims’
was also reflected in the letter pages of Muslim Views. Writing in defence
of the local cleric who had denounced the calls for the release of a
Muslim political prisoner, a certain Y. Abrahams said:

‘The munafiks [hypocrites) in our town who just make all the trouble
want to change our deen [religion] and say Muslims must go to
the townships and help the black koeffaar {unbelievers} and to tell
our children to fight and make trouble agenst the government . .
‘What have we Muslims to do with all these things. Let us leave this
politics and other business to the koeffaar .. . Let them take the
dunja [this world] and let us not forget our iebaadaat (ritaals} works
and we will take the sagira [hereafter], (Mualim Views, October 1991)

215

Qur'an. Liberation & Pluralism

Responding to Abrahams, Fatima Sibeko, a black Muslim woman, prob-
ably new to reified Islam, advised:

My Muslim brother, please learn the real Islam and take it to the
black people of this country, Why are we only good for you as cus-
tomers in your shops, as servants in your homes, but not as fellow
oppressed and fellow Muslims? We have been dehumanized for very
Jong now, and it will be through Islam that [we] will be liberated,
Not the "American Islam’ the Islam which says pray, fast, perform
hhajj [pilgrimage] and keep quiet. NO! I am talking about the Islam
the Prophet Muhammad practised, the Islam that stood for justice,
peace and love. In thar order. (Muslim Views, November 1991)

As the new South Africa was slowly taking shape and fears of the
unknown under a government of the unknown were escalating, increas-
ing numbers of Muslims sought refuge in comforting but none the less
glib and simplistic religious responses, as is evident from some of the
political developments leading up to the elections. In terms of the present
work, the two most significant of these were the debate on the Islamicity
or otherwise of partici

ating in a multi-party democracy and the forma-

tion of two religiously based parties in the Muslim community to contest
the elections.

To Vote or Not to Vote?

‘Those who argued against Muslim participation in the April 1904 general
elections were, broadly speaking, those who invoked religious rhetoric
and Qibla, whose position derived from an unfathomable mélange of rel
gious, party political, strategic and idiosyncratic considerations.” The
Murabitun and the Majlisul Ulama of the Eastern C:
coherent in their unambiguous denunciation of any participation in Auffar
politics: ‘Voting has no relevance to the establishment of Islam as an exis-
tential reality’, said Tariq
s (September 1993). “The Western system of voting’, said
the Majlisul Ulama, ‘is not permissible for Muslims. The masses lack the
understanding fo

ape were at least

yargandi from the Murabitun in a letter to

Muslim Vie

pointing a government, A variety of lowly and

worldly motives influence them to vote. The government in Islam is a
single individual who possesses the ability to rule according to the
shani‘ah. He is appointed by the Brains of the nation, not by masses of
ignoramuses' (The Majlis 11 (4), p. 1). Who exactly ‘the Brains’ are, alas,
was left unexplained!

Ebrahim Rasool, then national secretary of the Call and treasurer of

From the Wilderaess to the Promised Land

the ANC in the Western Cape, articulated this flight into the safe havens
of obscurantist blustering as follows:

‘As we edge towards the “New South Africa’, as we re-grapple and
‘come to terms with issues which previously were rejected in an
uncomplicated manner, as fears and insecurities seek their salvation
from future contestants for power, a confusion of identities emerges.
In the case of the Muslim community, the confusion is an interplay
of religious, ethnic and class identities, they draw on each other, they
justify each other, and they put on the garb most socially acceprable.
‘This garb is religion,

While fear of losing your business through nationalization is a class
fear, it is more acceptable to express it in terms of being Islamic/un-
Islamic. Fear of black majority rule may, at root, be ethnic, yet it is
more acceptable to express it in terms of whether elections or multi-
party democracy is Qur’snically justified. (Al-Qalam, January 1992)

Which Ship to Board?

While the nature of religio-political discourse had shifted fundamentally,
the political choices of those who had decided to participate in the elec-
toral process were, nevertheless, very significant indicators of the relation-
ship between ideology and theology. At a national level, the MYM called
on Muslims to "Vote for the ANC or PAC" while in the Cape they used
the same posters and stickers after pasting over the words ‘or PAC’. Both
positions could be distilled from a document to which both the Call and
the MYM were party, The ‘Muslim Declaration of April 27 Elections is
1a remarkable document that reflects the sentiment of all the progressive
‘Muslim forces on the eve of the elections (see Appendix Two). This dec-
laration, drawn up by Na’cem Jeenah, the secretary general of the MYM
and the late Haroon Patel,’ was the outcome of discussions of the
Muslim Forum on Elections, formed in the middle of 1993 and compris-
ing about thirty Mustim organizations. It reads in part:

We believe that an historic opportunity exists in the 27 April nation-
al elections for a constituent assembly to deliver unto our land and
its people a just political, economic, social and religious dispensation

It affords all South Africans an opportunity to free ourselves
from oppression and institutionalized discrimination on the basis of
race, ethnic or gender identity.

‘When voting, choose wisely and according to your own conscience,
and be mindful of the hopes and aspirations of the majority of the
poor and oppressed in our country. Also remember the history of
struggle for justice and the upliftment of the masses of our people.

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Quer

+ Liberation & Pluralism

Decades of apartheid rule has left many scars on our land. All
around us there is unemployment, poverty, inequality, broken fami
lies, crime and human misery

A future democracy must mean more than just a vote every now and
then. It must allow us to play a meaningful role in the day to day
decision-making in our society. It must lead to improvement in the
quality of life for all South Africans ~ not only the rich and powerful
It must create conditions for human and spiritual development
It must uphold basic human rights and respect the varied religious
codes and customs of all South Africans

We therefore commit ourselves to contributing to the spiritual
rebuilding and well-being of all South Africans. (A/-Qalam, March
1994, p. 7)

‘The Call, not unexpectedly, called for an AD
shift in terrain, it said that

> vote. Acknowledging the

throughout the Election Campaign we should refrain from using
emotive, specialized religious terms like halal [permissible] and
‘haram [prohibited] to get support for one party or the other. This
does not mean that it is acceptable to vote for the NP. . . Those
contemplating support for the NP do so based on fears which we
understand, but cannot condone. Those fears are based in racial
‘Stereotypes and apartheid propaganda, Muslims are required to rise
above such stereotypes. ‘The Call has decided to campaign for peo-
ple to vote ANC. (This is) the only real way for this country to build
justice, democracy, non-racialism and peace. (Muslim Vi
December 1993, p. 8)

‘The position of the Durban-based Islamic Propagation Centre (IPC)
headed by the world famous Muslim evangelist, Ahmed Deedat, was par-
ticularly interesting. There is no record of Deedat or his organization ever
having pronounced a word against apartheid other than within the context
of Muslim-Christian polemics; ‘Christianity was responsible for it and
Islam has all the answers’. While locally, and in private, he was scathing of
the involvement of Muslims in the struggle against apartheid, abroad he
complained about the fact that the ‘international Jewish media were delib-
erately obscuring the role which Muslims are playing in the struggle.”

The IPC did not take any position during the elections; it merely
assisted the conservative and deeply feared IFP of Gatsha Buthelezi, held
responsible for the overwhelming amount of so-called Black-on-Black
violence, to raise some funds in the Middle East (Muslim Views, April
1994, p. 13). More ingeniously, the IPC littered the lampposts of the

From the Wilderness to the Promised Land

‘KwaZulu-Natal Province with slogans saying ‘Islam For Peace’, the first
letter of each word enlarged and in bold. And just in case the viewers
missed the connection, the posters were all in full-blown IFP colours. As
far as Deedat’s theology and the mission to which he had devoted an
entire lifetime was concerned, Buthelezi, an Anglican, was destined for
hell because he did not embrace reified Islam. All of this was of little con-
sequence: the solidarity of the right wing was alive and well.

Voting for Double Reward — Here and the Hereafter!

An Islamic Party (IP) was launched in Cape Town late in 1990 under the
leadership of a local school teacher, Naushad Omar. Although it evoked
some publicity then, little was heard of it until the election campaign, by
which time it was largely overshadowed by the African Muslim Party
(AMP), formed by a group of prominent businessmen in Johannesburg
and Pretoria a few weeks before the elections. While both of these parties
campaigned in the Cape, only the AMP functioned at a national level.

In line with all other such ideological formations in the world, from
the right wing of the Republican Party in the United States to the reli-
gious groups currently sharing power in the Israeli government, they
advocated a combination of puritanical moral (read “sexual’) views and a
fierce commitment to a free market economy. In a lecture at the
University of the Western Cape, Omar said that the party advocated ‘the
economic policy of free-enterprise ~ a free market system with private
property rights’ (UWC Bulletin, 4 April 1991, p. 4). The manifestoes of
these parties were simple reproductions of texts from the Qur’an, mostly
without any elaboration. “The Qur'an is our constitution’ was the stock
response to any further enquiries. “This party is for your halal (permis~
sible] vote. We are anti-abortion on demand, anti-homosexual, anti-
casinos, anti-communist and anti-gambling’ read the manifesto of the
Islamic Party and their posters declared that one would be rewarded in
the hereafter if one voted for them.

Neither of these parties achieved a sufficient number of votes in the
election to win a single seat in parliament where seats were allocated to
parties on a proportional basis. Despite their inability to attract any sig-
nificant Muslim support, their very emergence was sufficient to raise the
temperature of Muslim political discourse. The progressive Muslims’
response to these parties and the way they dealt with questions of reli~
gious morality is fascinating, and provides much insight into how the
Qur'an continued to shape or underpin political discourse in the circles
of progressive Islam. The basic thrusts of these responses rotated around

219

Qurvan. Liberation & Pluralism

three issues: the lack of political and moral credibility of the figures
involved in the Muslim parties; the appropriateness of voting for the reli-
gious Other and the need to embrace the just Other even if the Other's
agenda does not coincide with that of reified Islam.

In reply to a question asking whether it was not sufficient to know
that the candidates of these parties were Muslim in order to vote for
them, the Call said

‘The struggle against apartheid had taught us only too well that there
are Muslims and ‘muslims’. Is the one who went to jail in the strug-
gle for justice exactly the same as the one who quietly sat by and did
not raise a finger or a shout when we were uprooted from our
homes? The Qur'an itself is clear that Allah has raised the mujahidin
(fighters) above the ga~idin (the ones who remain seated) . . . Your
commitment during the eighties does matter because it is a refle
tion of the kind of Islam that you believe in, (Call of Islam 1994,
Thinking of Voting for an Islamic Party?, p.

‘The fallacy of a common Muslim identity which could unite behind a
single party on the basis of a simple Muslim label was exposed by Essa al-
Seppe, education officer of the MYM, who described the AMP as a
‘wasted effort in the struggle for democracy’.

Islam fs the common binding factor, but Islam in South Afri
depends on where you are located on the apartheid landscape

Generalized Janguage about ‘the interests of Muslims’ must not dull
our senses about the geographical realities of apartheid, which influ-
ence attitudes towards race and class. The hierarchy of privilege and

affluence has its corollary in the hierarchy of suffering, not only in
terms of the Black-White divide, but also in terms of the
Muslim-Muslim divide, born Muslim-convert Muslim divide,
Indian-Malay-Coloured-African-Muslim divide . . . [Muslims can
be organized as Muslims but} on the basis of true Islam and not
Islam nurtured under the Group Areas Act - a type of Islam that
silently endorsed apartheid socialization and articulated a theology of
accommodation.” (Al-Qalam, March 1994, p. 6)

A question raised in conservative religious circles, as well as among 8
number of ordinary Muslims, was whether one can vote for a 'non-
believer’. ‘This is the polite version of the question,’ ventured the Call.
“The cruder version used by some Muslims more privately is “I will not
be ruled by Ka/fir,, meaning black

22p

From the Wilderness to the Promised Land

‘The early Muslims were sent to be protected by a Black Christian
ruler. The Nabi [Prophet] said to the first group they should go to a
land where ‘A king rules without injustice, a land of truthfulness . ..”
In South Africa it is people like Nelson Mandela who went to jail for
justice and truth... We must not judge by colour or religion. We
must judge by justice and freedom of religion. (Call of Islam 1994,
Must Muslims Vote for a Mustim Party?)

‘Their experience in the liberation struggle had taught them that religion
can mean anything to just about anyone, It is thus not surprising that in
this response we see the elevation of the principles of justice and freedom

of religion above those of generalized and unqualified religion.

In a masterful display of contextual hermeneutics, the Call used the
qur’anic narration of what is usually presented as a sad tale with a happy
ending, in a manner that affirms the need to put one’s own religious
beliefs unconditionally at the service of the suffering and the hungry. The
story is that of the Prophet Joseph, and given the remarkable way it

reflects the core of the ideas of this book, it is presented here in full:
Nabi Yusuf: Minister of Justice

‘The trials and tribulstions of Nabie Yusuf [Prophet Joseph] is so
Juable 5 lessons for all time that the Qur'an has a whole chapter
dedicated to explaining his story. He was thrown in a pit by his
brothers, sold to a passing caravan, thrown in a jail for refusing to be
seduced and forgotten there. If there is a Prophet that went through
all different forms of imprisonment then it is Nabi Yusuf. And
through all of this, he remained steadfast and unshaken.

While in prison, » messenger of Firoun [the Pharaoh) of Egypt
came to relate to him a dream Firoun had. Being able to interpret
dreams through the will of Allah, he could see drought and famine in
the future of Egypt. On hearing his interpretation, Firoun released
him. Nabie Yusuf then asked the king to put him in charge of the
store houses so that he may save the country from starvation and
poverty. He wanted to use the seven fat years to help the country
through the seven lean years, In the end he helped the country avert
national disaster and could then bring his family into Egypt. This
was in the time before the evil Firoun of Nabie Moosa [the Prophet
Moses}

But why is this story so important in the Qur'an? What are we to
learn from it today? What are we to gather from Nabi Yusuf’s atti-
tude after having been in prison for so long? Nabie Yusuf did not say
Firoun must resign first before he saved the country. He did not say
first unite, He did not say first become Muslims, Why did he
become minister in a kingdom that worshipped the sun instead of

221

Qur’ Liberstion & Pluralism

Allah? Why did he not say that Firoun must first believe in Islam and
its values before he, Nabie Yusuf will save his country? Why did he
not ask to be made king and rule the entire country in Allah's way?
No, Nabie Yusuf realized that saving people from hunger and starva-
tion was what Allah wanted him to do. And that's what he did.

This story with all its details has important lessons for Muslims in
South Africa and the oppressed in general.

‘Muslims have come to South Africa under much the same cir-
cumstances as Nabie Yusuf. We came either as slaves or indentured
workers. We were imprisoned, oppressed, exploited and discriminat-
ed like the majority in the land, For the first time we will have a
legitimate government. That government will not be Muslim. Some
of its values will not even have sanction in the Qut’an. But as
‘Muslims we have, by the grace of Allah, the capacity to help this
country avoid starvation and hunger. Like Nabie Yusuf we must do
‘our best and build a new country. We must draw on our Islam, our
Qur'an and our history and seize the opportunity before us, We can-
not ask that everybody be Muslim before we act. We must make our
contribution because of the strong sense of justice and because of the
inspiration we get from Nabie Yusuf. (May Allah bless him). (Call of
Islam 1994, FW, Codesa 2 and the Duah, p. 6)

The Social Challenges

I remember during the early 1980s speaking at public meetings wit
deep sense of excitement about the inevitable death of apartheid and the
rise of a new dawn, telling people: ‘Can you imagine that we are the gen-
eration responsible for the death of apartheid; that we are going to slay
the monster of racial arrogance; that te are going to be the first South
Africans in 350 years who are going to live in a non-racial, non-sexist and

democratic homeland?" Difficult as it was to sustain this belief at times,
we did it

The elections took place over a period of three days, from 26 to 28
April 1994. I found myself in the rural areas, having been deployed by
the ANC to help sort out some problems at the polling stations. On my
rounds, I came across one that was relatively deserted — only about two
hundred people. I joined a queue of farm labourers, among the most
exploit d. Armed with my ballot paper and a pencil I
entered the polling booth. I couldn't believe it. Here I was, I paused and
thought of Yusuf Akhalwaya, our twenty-one-year-old brother and com-
rade in the Call, in WCRP and in Umkhonto we Sizwe. He had died in a
bomb blast a mere two months before the unbanning of the liberation
movements and the release of Mandela, and only one year after his

ed of the oppres:

From the Wilderness to the Promised Land

marriage. Yusuf, was this what you gave your life for? This for which you
left behind a tiny daughter, Raisa?

I thought of the pain our country had endured in its long march to
freedom, the loneliness of exile, of detention without trial, the political
murders, the dispossession, the sighs of the tired and the exploited facto-
ry and farm workers, the months of living on the run like a fugitive, the
attacks by police dogs, the clandestine pampbleteering . . . all for a single
mark with a cheap little lead pencil!

The ANC won with 62.65 % of the national vote, followed by the
NP with 20.4%. The African Christian Democratic Party, the counter-
part of the Muslim religious parties, had less than 0.5% but managed to
secure two seats in the new Parliament. Both the AMP and the IP were
flattened. Twenty-three of the four hundred new Members of
Parliament, including three Cabinet Ministers, came from Muslim
backgrounds, Among them were several who were alyo deeply commit-
ted to Islam, Ebrahim Rasool was appointed as the local Minister of
Health and Social Welfare in the Western Cape. Two other Cabinet
Ministers come from Hindu backgrounds and the new Speaker of
Parliament, Frene Ginwala, is a Zoroastrian,

Less than two weeks later Nelson Mandela was inaugurated as our
country’s president. In the three days immediately following the event he
visited a church, a mosque and a synagogue to underline his commitment
to religious pluralism and to inclusivity. The New South Africa was truly
going to belong to all of its people. I viewed the inaugural events along
with some fellow students at the Philosophische Theologische
Hochschule in Frankfurt am Main in Germany. Here I had been pursu-
ing research in biblical hermeneutics for nearly a year. No one knew any-
thing about my background, except that I was a Muslim and from South
Africa, At one point a huge banner came on to the screen “The Call of
Islam salutes President Mandela’. “Do you know that organization?”
someone asked. 1 muttered Yes’, cried silently and slipped away

Back to South Africa

‘Three contexts supply a useful background within which to examine
the way Muslims responded to the social challenges of a post-apartheid
South Africa in the wilderness. First, internationally, the Gulf was in
flames and the ‘Great Satan’, the USA, was leading Muslim armies in a
war against other Muslims. Bosnia, and much later Chechnya, joined
Kashmir and Palestine on the growing list of causes which we feel pas-
sionately about, Yet they only serve to highlight our impotence and the
insurmountable chasm between our indomitable illusions about being the

Qur'an. Liberation & Pluralism

best of people, with all the solutions to all of humankind’s problems, and
the reality of a ceaseless victimhood in which we are despised as refugees
whose dreams cannot transcend a green card to enter the belly of the
“Great Satan’. Second, locally, the police state founded on Calvinist puri-
tanism had disintegrated. The collapse of a state that required gambling
dens and easily available sex in the so-called independent Bantustans,
providing relief at close proximity whi
illusion of your own righteousness, led to the general liberalization of
South African society. Crime escalated, drugs were more freely available
than ever before. Yesterday's ‘prostitutes’ became today’s ‘sex workers’
and Scope, a popular magazine that featured female nudes with their star-
capped nipples, died to make way for the ‘real stuff”. Third, if the long-
drawn-out and often, of necessity, secretive negotiations alienated the
most seasoned of activists, then this sense of disengagement was much

simultaneously permitting the

more acutely felt among ordinary politically aware people. For years,
anti-apartheid activists had defined their existences and even theologies
in terms of the enemy. Now Pharaoh, however despised, had become a
negotiation partner. This left many an activist bewildered and organiza-
tions such as the Call, the MSA and the MYM in a state of disarray, This
is a situation from which they have still not fully recovered, and, in the
case of the Call, it is probably fatal. Only Qibla, never having had much
of an interest in reality, remained on course in their cul-de-sac

Marching into the Laager: Occasionally Even Side by Side

Marching, first popularized by the UDF in the late 1980s, became
the most common form of public expression of Muslim sentiment
after 2 February 1990, All over the country, including in the most
conservi

ive little towns, Muslims took to marching, The plight of the
‘Muslims in Bosnia, Kashmir and Palestine was the object of many of these
marches and thousands participated in them. The embassies of the United
States and of Israel bore the brunt of Muslim anger. The USA, particular-
ly, was bitterly denounced for intervening (Iraq and Somalia) and for not
intervening (Bosnia). Demonstrations for international Muslim causes
were, of course, not uncommon in the 1980s. The major difference is that
then the MYM and the Call always insisted on relating those causes to the
struggle in South Africa. In fact, these causes were often invoked in order
to utilize Muslim indignation at the oppression of Muslims in other parts of
the world, to bring about a greater awareness of the suffering of all of the
oppressed, especially of their fellow South Africans. The Call, in particular,

From the Wilderness to the

omised Land

displayed immense acumen in transforming virtually any international or
local event that could potentially demonize the religious Other, into a
demonstration of broad religious solidarity against all forms of dehuman-
ization, whoever the victims might be. Thus Jews were invited to speak
on the oppression of Palestinians and prominent Christian Reformed the-
ologians were invited to speak at meetings to denounce the Dutch
Reformed Church for describing Islam as a false religion. (And Muslim
speakers used the same opportunity to denounce other Muslims who reg-
ularly heaped abuse upon the Christian faith.)

‘The rhetoric characterizing the demonstrations of the last period is
unmistakably fundamentalist. When the religious Other was not explicitly
excluded from the messages on the placards or in speeches, they were
excluded from the form of the demonstrations. Jews were invariably equated
with blood-sucking Zionists and Christians with imperialists. "The following
excerpt from a pamphlet issued during this period is one such example:

Allah, Most Gracious and Wise, says:

ye who believe! Take not the Jews and the Christians for your
friends and your protectors: They are but friends and protectors to
each other. And he amongst you that turns to them for friendship is
of them, Verily Allah guideth not a people unjust." Qur'an (5:54)

‘The world's greatest evils today are zionism and imperialism. It is
against these evils that Allah is warning us: the Jew with his bigoted
aionist racism and the exploicative selfish capitalism and the world
devouring and dehumanizing imperialist in the name of Christianity.
‘The moment we seek to entrench their value system and seek theit
protection by NEGOTIATING pacts with them, Allah unambigu-
‘ously states that we are for them and that HE will not guide us. Quite
clearly, the Qur'an prohibits the believers from entering into any form
of alliances, economic, political or military with zionism and imperial
ism because they are unjust and because they will not fail to corrupt
the believers (Qibla n.d., One Solution, Islamic Revolution, p. 1.)

Equally popular, although often attracting a different crowd, were the
marches against drugs, crime and the various manifestations of what is
viewed as the descent of South African society into an immoral aby:

s.
‘These marches culminated in the meteoric rise of People Against Drugs
and Gangsterism (Pagad) in the second half of 1996, A number of factors
were responsible for the escalating crime rate and the rapidly changing
social mores, especially in the urban areas. These included the loosening
of the reins of the police state; the general opening up of our borders,
allowing in rather undesirable elements; the pervasive disrespect for the

Quer: Liberation & Pluralism

law and mistrust of its enforcers engendered by apartheid; the general
cheapening of human life under apartheid (and, more specifically,
through its hit squads, which could indiscriminately kill scores of mourn-
rs at funerals) and the growing unemployment and poverty.

‘These marches ranged from small ones, attracting a few hundred,
protesting against the opening of a tote in a local area, to thousands
demonstrating against the proliferating presence of drug peddlers, dubbed
‘merchants’, ‘Push out the Drug Pushers!” ‘Kill the merchants before they
kill us!’ and ‘No to the Tote’ were some of the slogans doing the rounds.
‘These marches culminated in the rather dramatic events which dominat-
ed the Muslim community’s public profile towards the latter part of 1996,
the formation of Pagad and the killing of a prominent gang leader,
Rashaad Staggies. Subsequent marches by Pagad have also resulted in the
deaths of an alleged drug dealer and of Achmat Najaar, a Pagad member,
in November during one of their public demonstrations.

Pagad, a Qibla-inspired initiative against drugs and gangsterism,
organized a series of marches to the homes of alleged drug dealers

‘Twenty-four ultimatums were delivered to the alleged dealers to stop
their activities or to ‘face the mandate of the community’, During one
such march in August, Staggies, a notorious gang leader, was doused
with petrol and burnt to death. This event, televised across the world,
conjured up images of a blood-thirsty Islam hell-bent on imposing its
morality on all and sundry. While there were few who shed tears for the
death of someone who had brought ruin to many families, there was a
deep sense of disquiet about the barbarity of the method.

Radio 786 in the Cape, one of the numerous community radios oper-
ating in the wake of the government's liberalization of the airwaves, was,
and is, controlled by Qibla and became an important means of populariz~

ig their message and mobilizing Muslims towards their causes, With
Qibla’s militancy blunted by engagements with their ideologyless allies in
the newly formed Islamic Unity Convention, and their radio being com-
pelled to conform to the somewhat liberal standards of the Independent
Broadcasting Authority, a number of their more militant elements have
moved sideways to form the core of Pagad. They have done this while
remaining under the ideological guidance and inspiration of Achmat
Cassiem and retaining control over Radio 786.

For the vast majority of ordinary, even if armed, participants in these
marches and rallies, Pagad represented the gut response of a community
exasperated with the, at best, seeming inability of the police to address
the escalating crime levels or, at worst, active police collusion with the

From the Wilde

ised Land

drug lords and gangsters. Initially, the group appeared to be rather
disparate with several and often conflicting, or no, ideological perspec
tives, all buried under the wave of emotionalism and belief in essentialist
notions of an ahistorical truth encapsulated in an Islam which consistent
ly defies intellectual scrutiny.

‘The early stages of the Pagad drama in Cape Town saw a myriad of
seeming discordant voices coming from its leadership. On one day they
could be ‘willing to die tonight’ for the ‘One Solution, Islamic
Revolution’ option and on the next they could be ‘sensible, ordinary
community people who are fed up with drugs’ and who dismiss the idea
of an Islamic state as ‘laughable’. For me, this reflected the tension
berween the genuine leadership position being exercised from a safe dis-
tance, probably for security and strategic reasons, and the ostensible one
which was exposed to the public and, incidentally, had not had a histori-
cal or ideological relationship with Qibla.

‘These discordant voices also reflect the convergence of a number of
different strands among sections of the Cape Muslim community,
although there was no coherent distinction between them, and one can
simultaneously belong to more than one strand. We have the Africanists
who believe that the PAC sold out by participating in the 1994 elections
and that the state is essentially illegitimate; the morally outraged who
believe that the values of a liberal democratic state is repugnant to human
decency and subversive of all religious values; and there are those who
believe that there is only one solution for South Africa and the world, an
‘Islamic’ revolution along the lines of the Iranian experience, At all of
these levels the discourse is essentially an anti-state one which feeds on
deeply felt community concem. As one of Pagad’s members recently told
me, ‘This {the current Pagad-inspired activity) is the true meaning of
“the people shall govern”.

When confronted with the fact of Muslims being only 1.32% of the
population and the seeming absurdity of an Islamic option for the country,
Pagad members will respond with the qur’anic text ‘How many a time hath
4 small force not vanquished a large force with the permission of God?". As
for the will of the people and the democratic state, their response is that the
majority cannot determine what is true and what is false, the Qur'an does
so. When confronted with the fact that the Qur’an does not sanction killing
by fire us was the case with Staggies, nor does it sanction bypassing the rule
of law in a just stare, nor does it support the death penalty for drug push-
ing, the Qur'an is neatly side-stepped and Pagad has to resort to ‘the com-
munity’ ~ back to the majority ~ as the key to legitimize their activity.

227

Qur'an, Liberation & Pluralism

‘True to the nature of absolutist formations which inevitably erode
their own base with the deluded and ‘truth-possessing’ Self becoming
fewer and fewer while the demonized Other grows larger and larger,
Pagad split into two groups with mutual recrimination and
excommunication flying thick and fast.

‘The Pagad, their marches and their ‘Kill rhe Merchant! Kill" chants
are reflective of a number of instinctive and often simplistic responses
and solution to crime and violence in our society. The rise of the liberal
democratic state which upholds the human rights of all, including crimi-
nals and gangsters, has been heavily criticized by a large section of the
population and they have called for the return of the death penalty. The
rise of the liberal democratic state has certainly loosened the reins of the
state and many of the police are still paralysed about what goes and what
does not in the new South Africa. Furthermore, while the state now guar-
antees all kinds of rights to its citizens, we have not seen a commitment
of those citizens, arguably the state’s pri-
mary function, The problem, however, is not the liberal democratic state
itself, nor is the solution a return to woralitarianism with its slogans of
death to all dissidents and social delinquents. The problem is rooted in
the apartheid regime and the accompanying destruction of any sense of
morality, along with the growth of a self-centred utilitarian culture where
people just sce themselves and their own needs.

We are, however, dealing with the South African nation, a nation

to protect the lives and prope!

Which tured all predictions of a drawn-out, bloody and dirty race war on
its head, The people of our land refused to adjust to decades of enforced
discrimination and doggedly pursued their own agenda of liberation. The
point I want to make is that, while in the long run, only a vast improve-
ment in our socio-economic position will bring about a fundamental
change in the crime situation, we are not entirely powerless and can do
4n enormous amount to turn things around. For this, all of us ~ victims
and perpetrators ~ need the willingness to own the problem and a deter-
mined bid to be a part of a humane solution, one that will not see the
remedy aggravating the disease. ‘This means a refusal to divide the world
into ‘them’ and ‘us’. Subsequent to the death of Staggies, we saw events
in the working-class areas of Mannenberg and Valhalla Park where hun-
dreds of people joined the gangsters in their display of community sup-
port and demonstrated the extent to which the gangsters are an organic
part of the community. Similarly, with Pagad, it is not the ‘them’ Iranian
or Libyan influence at work, as much of the media speculated, but, in
Jarge measure, another organic part of our community giving vent to their

From the Wilderness to the Promised Land

anger at the seeming inability or unwillingness of the state to move
against those wreaking havoc with our lives.

Some of our public responses to drugs and gangsterism really reflect
on us as the prisoners of deep-seated anger and bitterness who have fallen
prey to the most atavistic and primordial revenge response seen in a long
time. We have, in fact, become victims who have internalized the cheap-
ening of the human spirit which the apartheid system had so desperately
‘sought — just when we thought that the beast had been slain we find that
it had entered our innards. Desperate to exorcize the beast, we find an
enemy ‘out there’ in the shape of gangsters and drug merchants against
whom we direct our venom without fully appreciating the source of the
venom. There may well be an enemy out there, as many a victim of gang-
sterism and drugs may testify, but that is only part of the story; we are the
Siamese twins to whom yesterday's regime gave birth and the cake can-
not now be unbaked, nor the sugar separated from the flour. Drug mer-
chants require customers; gangsters require customers to buy their stolen
merchandise ~ here lies the rub, Blame the collapse of sexual morality on
the freedom with which sex workers go about their business, if you will,
but it takes two, well, at least nwo, to tango.

A refusal to recognize the way Selfhood is tied up to the despised
Other and that the seat of the venom is the Self is dangerous because if we do
not come to terms with its presence, then we will be engaged in an etemal
search for external entities on which to unleash it, “Where are we going to clean
up next?" becomes a driving quest. Yet venom is like acid; it does more harm to
the vessel in which it is stored than to the abject on which it is poured.

‘The simplistic solutions offered by the marchers and their organizers
alienated those who saw the rise in crime as a reflection of larger socio-
economic issues. While they were welcomed when they did participate in
these marches, their banners were not as Muslim Views reported
‘Residents expressed disappointment with a group of people who joined
the march with political banners. They stated that while one of the con-
tributing factors to the drug problem could have been apartheid, that the
group should rather have joined the march
(Muslim Views, April 1990, p. 4)

While the simplistic solution of ‘kill all peddlers’ was the one most
commonly offered by the organizers of these marches, this was not with-
out exception. Lufi Omar of the Salt River Anti-Drug Coordinating
Council argued that the marches and meetings ought not to be a 'person-
al war’ against merchants, “In actual fact, the opposite is true. They are

ith strong anti-drug banners’

part and parcel of the community, you cannot wish them away. . . we are

229

Qur'an, Liberstion & Pluralism

not against peddlers per se but rather their activities and the problems
arising therefrom’ (Muslim Views, April 1991, p. 4). Maligalim Simone, a
Muslim academic, also argued that given that we were just emerging
from an apartheid society, which was prescriptive, one should guard
against imposing similar solutions on peddlers (Muslim Views, May 1991,
P. 8). These, however, were unheeded noises in a wilderness of self-
righteousness on the part of a people who insisted on secing the problem
as the eternally Other and the solutions in the elimination of that Other.
‘One day it is the ‘Great Satan’, the next ‘Zionism’, the following the
‘merchant’. The fact of Otherness as a condition for selfhood was sardon-
ically reflected in the comment of ‘merchant’ addressed to a man watch-
ing an anti-drug march. He replied: ‘Let them march today as they
please. I see a number of my customers among this lot and I know
by this evening they'll be back.’

‘The second major focus of the marches was the consequences of the
liberalization of South African society on capital punishment and on per-
sonal, more specifically sexual, morality. De Klerk had placed a moratori-
um on capital punishment in 1992 and in May 1995 all eleven judges of
the Constitutional Court, including Ismail Mohammed, unanimously

declared that the death penalty was unconstitutional in terms of section 9
of the Bill of Rights, which upholds the right of every citizen to life, as
well as under section 10, which upholds the right to human dignity, Both
of these clauses were retained in the final draft of the constitution adopted
in March 1996 by the Constitutional Assembly, despite hundreds of thou-
sands of petitions and numerous marches in support of the death penalty.
Some time later that month a crowd of more than a hundred, mostly Qibla
supporters, some brandishing guns, invaded the house of the Minister of
Justice, Dulla Omar, in protest at the abolition of the death penalty

Despite the seemingly explicit qur’anic sanction, even prescription, of
the death penalty and the wave of support for it among the vast majority
of Muslims, there were several significant Muslim voices who argued for
its abolition. Omar, himself a Muslim, took the path of caution and
argued that ‘According to Mustim Law, one must look at the crime and
punishment within the broader context of the system of justice and this
entire systern must be in line with Muslim values. Where justice does not
conform to such values the use of the death penalty is inappropriate
(Muslim Views, June 1995, p. 1). Similarly the Call argued that

While Muslims have every right to articulate the Islamic view of per-
sonal morality, it is important to understand that this is part of a
comprehensive Islamic moral-ethico world view. In the same way

From the Wilderness to the Promised Land
that one does not demand the amputation of thieves in a poverty
ridden society one cannot insist on capital punishment as the norm
in a society which is not governed by the laws and values of Islam.
‘The Shari‘ah injunctions and Islamic morality are parts of a whole.
To isolate the rules from their context and argue for their artificial
transplantation into a non-Islamic society is to reduce an entire
world view to a set of punishments, (Call of Islam 1994, Must
Muslims Vote for a Muslim Party? p. 1)

Avoiding any reference to the Qur'an, and freed from any organizational
discipline, I argued in my column in a local daily that the justification for
capital punishment ‘in the face of overwhelming evidence that it does not
deter seems to be rooted in most atavistic, primordial and revenge cords
in people.’ ‘Surely such responses’, I said, ‘have little or no place in a civ-
ilized society’, If the ‘advocates for the death penalty argue that this is the
retribution that society must exact for murder then why do we then not
rape rapists? Simply because deep down we realize that something of our
humanness will be severely impaired, that there is something abominable
about stooping to the level of the lowest among us."

What the vast majority of ordinary citizens, especially those living in
the cities, found most disconcerting about the direction of the new South
Africa was the public face of a new sexual explicitness. Sex services were
being freely advertised in the newspapers and those soliciting or procur-
ing sex business on the streets were no longer harassed or prosecuted.
‘The possession and sale of pornographic material by and to adults was
allowed. Until then, all of these things had been intrinsic to life in South
Africa but society could somehow pretend that they did not exist,
Furthermore, the interim as well as the most recent version of the consti-
tution, which was passed by the Constitutional Assembly with an over-
whelming majority, outlawed discrimination on the grounds of religion,
race, sex and sexual orientation, The extent of the changes in social cli~
mate in South Africa was witnessed at the Beijing Conference on women.
Here, South Africa, geographically and politically aligned with Africa and
the rest of the developing nations, which have in their ranks the most
conservative Muslim and Catholic states, became the darling of Western
countries and lesbian groups because the provisions of the interim consti-
tution were way ahead of even the most liberal Western democracies. It is
the only constitution in the world that explicitly protects sexual preference
and South Africa is the only country in Africa that legalizes abortion on
demand up to fourteen weeks of pregnancy. ‘Unlike many African coun-
tries which allow discriminatory customary laws to take precedence over

Qur'an, Liberstion & Pluralism

Qur’

Liberation & Pluralism

written laws in matters such as ownership and inheritance, the South
African Constitution stipulates that the Bill of Rights overrides traditional
practices.’ (Mail and Guardian, 15-21 November 1995, pp. 18-19) ‘South
Africa’, said Nkosazana Zuma, the Minister of Health and leader of the
country’s delegation in Beijing, “has experienced the worst form of dis-
crimination that any country can ever experience and we will make sure
that no one is ever discriminated against on the basis of individual prefer-
ence regardless of how any other country sees the issues’ (ibid.) In a con-
troversy with Muslim countries over whether girls and boys should have
equal inheritance rights, South Aftica vowed to stand firm. “The issue is
non-negotiable’, said Geraldine Moleketi-Fraser, the Minister of Welfare
and Human Development and another delegate to Beijing (ibid)

A curious but not unexpected phenomenon became rather common
in the responses of both conservative Muslims and Christians to these
profound changes. Although they insisted that the religious Other was
eternally damned, except through embracing Islam or accepting Jesus
Christ as personal saviour, they, nevertheless, embraced each other like
long-lost brothers. Thus, one saw the Anti-Tote Action Committee being
formed to protest against the building of a tote next to a church in
Belgravia. The secretary, a Muslim, announced that more than a thou-
sand signatures had been collected at mosques and churches in the area
(Muslim Views, April 1991, p. 31). More insidious was the co-operation

between Muslims in the African Muslim Party and right-wing Christians
in the African Christian Democratic Party and the Christian Voice, orga-
nizations whose leaders were actively engaged in supplying Renamo with
weapons against Frelimo in the Mozambican war of liberation. Here,
Muslims and Christians who opposed interfaith solidarity against
apartheid worked hand in hand in the Forum Against Abortion on
Demand ‘to teach people about morality’ (Al-Qalam, November 1994,
p. 4). Two thousand Muslims and Catholic protesters marched against
abortion in Pretoria in April 1995 and the MJC joined the newly formed
Moral Standards Commission to oppose pomography and abortion on
demand (Muslim Views, April 1995, p. 4).

An editorial in Muslim Views, never particularly renowned for

acknowledging virtue in the religious Other, reflected a curious combina-
tion of religious arrogance and expedience in a newly discovered
acknowledgement of the authenticity of other religious paths

Muslims are the custodians of morality and cannot tolerate the auda-
ious onslaught against Islam presently and overtly taking place in
the form of ungodly Bills to be passed at an unprecedented rate.

From the Wilderness to the Promised Land

‘Those who fight against the laws of Allsh cannot be considered as
believers nor as friends of the ummah, The Qur'an — in which divine
laws decrees social and governmental arbitration differentiates
between believers and unbelievers.

It is not only Muslims who abhor Satanistic laws, but also
Christians, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists and Others. The Qur'an quotes
them [sic] as believers and People of the Book if their beliefs are
based on divine scripture (Muslim Views, editorial, April 1995, p. 4)

Freedom, which very few Muslims had bargained for, was clearly a pack-
age deal and so they utilized their new-found freedom to march in order to
curb the freedom of others, including those who had fought for freedom long
before these Muslims took to the streets. ‘It is a pity’, said the Call of Islam,

that those who were in the shadows when the people of this country
suffered severely under apartheid are now holding up the banner of
Islam, The early Muslims did not wait for better days, staying in the
shadows until Qureish calmed down. Where were they then and why
do they come out only now? Only they know. While waiting for bet-
ter days they hid in the shadow of their mayid {mosque], their surg-

teries, theie institutes, and even in the shadow of Navy ships while the
army and their third force generals were killing in the townships,

Why did the guardians of morality wait for better days before speak-

ing up? Did they not always believe in the morality of Islam or was
the Qur'an silent before 1994? The Prophet said that the greatest
jihad is to speak the truth in the face of a tyrant. Why did they wait
for others to kill the tyrant and then use the freedom of speech that
others fought for to speak. Sincere people do not wait for better days
when it is safe to oppose something which they believe is wrong.
Now we must ask ourselves whether insincere people should be
allowed to fly the flag of Islam on our behalf (Call of Islam 1994,
‘Must Muslims Vote for a Muslim Party? p. 1

While conservative Muslims spoke about a ‘a tug of war between freedom
and morality’ (Muslim Views, June 1995, p. 10) others viewed freedom
and democracy as manifestations of morality and spoke about the need to
embrace ‘moral pluralism.’

While the vast majority of Muslims feel strongly about issues of per-
sonal sexual morality such as abortion and alcohol (admittedly not
strongly enough to actually live alongside the injunctions of Islam in
this regard) it is important to remember that some of these norms
are peculiar to Islam. Can we really expect a government represent
ing the people of this country to implement laws which are peculiar
to us and our world view. What if environmentalists insist that, by

233

Qur'an, Liberation & Pluralism

their standards of morality, eating meat is an evil and asks the
government to ban the eating of meat throughout the country? What
if the government listen to animals rights activists and declare that
the Islamic way of slaughtering animals is cruel? Where does it stop?
(Call of Islam 1994, Must Muslims Vote for a Muslim Party?, p. 1)

While the progressive Muslims did not avoid the shari‘ah discourse on
abortion — even making significant contributions to the debate ~ they
argued thar, ‘there are more pressing issues on the national agenda [than
abortion] that need urgent attention in the process of reconstruction.
Chief among these are the gross unemployment, poverty, homelessness,
educational crisis, and poor health care’ (Al-Qalam, March 1994, p, 14)
‘Tahir Sitoto, then national president of the MYM, deplored the selective
morality of the conservative Muslims, which ‘confines morality to sexual
matters only’ and said that ‘in the South African context the most moral
action is to work for the upliftment of the deprived and oppressed masses
‘of our country’ (ibid).

Believers (Somewhat Haggard) in the Future

tis clear from much of the above that progressive Muslims were not lag-
ging behind in responding to the challenges presented by other Muslims.
‘The question is whether there was anything more to them and their pro-
gramme in this period, beyond this?

While both the Call and the MYM played s crucial role in some of
the key issues of the Muslim relationship with the state and the religious
Other, that were going to shape Muslim life in the new South Africa,
their presence and influence as viable organizations with an organized
leadership and coherent programme have been in gradual decline since
the unbanning of the liberation movements and the release of political
prisoners, While the MYM is still very much alive, even if not always
well, in the Cape one can safely write out a death certificate for the Call,
without any fear of the corpse protesting.” From quite early on in the
negotiation period both of these organizations were shadows of their for-
mer selves and, in the case of the Call, their programmes hardly ever
went beyond dre

@ up ANC policy and negotiating tactics in qur’anic
wrapping. This is not to suggest that they were selling a product in whose
manufacture they had no share. On the contrary, a number of Call
activists and other committed Mustims joined the ANC. Ebrahim Rasool
became its Western Cape treasurer and, later, elections co-ordinator and
subsequently a number of others came to play significant roles in various

From the Wilderness to the Promised Land

levels of government. Furthermore, the ANC, as I shall indicate further on,
persisted along a path of principled commitment to many of the values of
progressive Islam. However, the internal quiet and ongoing reflections on
the Qur'an — communitarian exegesis — and the emphasis on the personal
growth of the engaged interpreter which characterized its work before the
unbanning of the liberation movement were missing.

Reflecting this changing scenario was the emergence of the
Claremont Main Road Mosque as the new heart of progressive Islam.
Here one could come as an activist or spectator, be a fully paid-up mem-
ber or slip in and out unobtrusively, enjoy a variety of intellectually stim-
ulating sermons or just savour the quiet of a safe haven. Whereas before,
progressive Islam had seemed to be all over the place, particularly in
working-class areas: now it was concentrated in a mosque.

‘The reasons for its diminishing organizational presence are diverse
and intrinsically linked to the dramatic political developments unfolding
in the country. First, in the changed political situation choices still had to
be made, However, with the fuel supplied by the presence of an unmis-
takable Pharaoh gone, what were previously viewed as purely moral
imperatives were now reduced to ‘politics’. For a while this could still
correctly be described as ‘liberation politics’ but the inevitable transfor-
mation into party politics, however strong the emphasis on redressing
Past injustices, could not be delayed indefinitely. While there is nothing
intrinsically ignoble about such politics, they simply do not have the
moral appeal of « liberation struggle. All progressive organizations experi-
enced enormous difficulty in sustaining their programmes and the inter-
est of their members. While, along with all progressive organizations, the
Call ‘lost’ a number of leadership figures to government, numerous indi~
viduals found it impossible 10 make the political adjustments required by
the new situation. Others walked away
ance of three-piece suits and the pace at which the incoming ruling class
‘was switching from Volkswagens and Minis to BMWs and Mercedes Benz.

‘The MYM had a much longer history than the Call, a sound internal
financial base (reflecting also its middle-class orientation), a greater sense

in quiet disgust at the rapid appear-

of being an organization, a clearer affinity with the International Islamic
Movement and greater emphasis on normative, even if enlightened,
Islam, The Call of Islam, on the other hand, far more of # movement
than an organization, was too intrinsically wedded to the vicissitudes of
struggle for liberation for it to survive a free South Africa as an organiza-
tion. It is also regrettable thar despite the common ground between the
two organizations, particularly in the Cape, their co-operation never went

Que’ Liberation & Pluralism

beyond a joint response to a few short-term issues.”

I would tentatively venture a third reason for the diminishing pres-
ence of progressive Islam: the loss of charismatic leadership figures. The
‘Muslim community seem to display # penchant for such figures and while
both the Call and the MYM claimed an aversion to ‘leaderism’ and an
affinity with collegial leadership, both were, nevertheless, led by such fig-
ures during the 1980s. I had resigned as National Co-ordinator of the
Gall of Islam in February 1990 and from the organization itself in
October of that year, after a series of rather bruising encounters over,

amongst other matters, ‘incompatible understandings of organizational
accountability’. Early in 1991, the MYM also experienced a major change
in its leadership when the terms of office of both its national director and
national president, Mawlana Ebrahim Moosa and Imam Abdul Rashied
Omar respectively, came to an end. ‘They were also religious leadership
figures offic
very nature in tension with the vision of progressive Isam, which asks that
everyone become a subject of history and desires partners in struggle and
pursuit of truth, rather than leaders and followers

‘The impact of the ideas of the Call and the MYM, and even their
‘occasional organizational presence, continued to be felt in two significant
developments in the overall process of rethinking Islam within the con-
text of religious pluralism and for liberation during this period: the reach-
ing of a historic interfaith consensus of the vision and demands of all reli-
gious groups in the country, and the struggle for gender equality.

In May 1988 the World Conference on Religion and Peace (WCRP)
organized a consultation in Soweto on the subject of ‘Believers in the
‘Struggle for Justice and Peace’. Subsequently, in the wake of the momen-
tous changes occurring in South Africa, Albie Sachs at the NMC in May
1990 called for a national conference of religious leaders to discuss the
future of religion-state relations in a post-apartheid South Africa. The
Call, the key mover behind the NMC, was also WCRP’s most significant
ally in the Muslim community; indeed, its national secretary was simulta-
neously in the full-time employment of WCRP as its national co-ordina-
tor. It was in response to this call that WCRP hosted a major conference
titled “Believers in the Future”

The themes of both conferences consciously had twin meanings, sug-
gesting both that people of religious faith were dealing with the question
of justice and peace and the future, and that people had faith in justice
and peace and the future. The organizers were also at pains to explain
that the description of themselves as believers did not exclude those who

ting at mosques. This kind of leadership is, of course, by its

From the Wilderness to the Promised Land
did not subscribe to any religious faith bur who were committed to the
creation of a just social order in South Africa. The conference itself reit-
crated that ‘the rights of religious people to practise their religion may
never be exalted over the rights of other people not to practise any reli-
gion .. , and that religious people have much to learn from people vari-
ously identified as agnostics, atheists, or secular humanists about the cre~
ation of a just and peaceful society” (Kritizinger 1991, p. ix)."*

‘The conference was attended by about 350 delegates and opened by
Ali Mazrui, a prominent Kenyan Muslim scholar, who also delivered the
sixth Annual Desmond Tutu Peace Lecture. A number of keynote
addresses were delivered by various religious leaders. Albie Sachs, by
then emerging as one of the most brilliant and critical thinkers in the
ANC, gave a paper on the relationship between religion and state in a
democratic South Africa. Sachs advocated the option of a state ‘which is
secular, tolerant and accepting of the deep importance religion has for
millions of South Africans while religious communities should be free t0
organize their own worship as they please and be encouraged to take part
in the life of the nation’ (Sachs 1991, p. 37). To be secular, he said, ‘does
not mean to be anti-religious, but rather that there is no official religion,
no favouring of any particular denomination, and no persecuting of or
any discrimination against non-believers’ (ibid., p. 39). Referring to the
religious ‘insistence on an ethical basis for personal conduct, the spirit of
service and community’ and the way ‘the poetical and mystical visions of
the holy books have entered the world views of most South Africans’, he
said: "These are powerful points of reference for the creation of a new
united South Africa in which national life is enriched by religious diversi-
ty and religious organizations transform themselves and become more
spiritual and more truly South African as they help transform the coun-
wy’ (ibid., p. 42).

In a well-reasoned response, Abdul Rashied Omar articulated a posi-
tion from the perspective of progressive Islam. Given the propensity for
the leadership of organized religious minorities to insist joyfully on reli-
gious pluralism for their own traditions, while repressing dissent within
their own ranks, Omar appealed for an acknowledgement and acceptance
of what he described as ‘intrinsic pluralism’. “Not only is there a need for
us to acknowledge the plurality of religious traditions that pervade the
South African landscape, but even more importantly, we need to incor-
porate pluralism in our very notion of religious tradition. Applying this to
the Islamic tradition, we need to understand that there is no one mono-
lithic Islam in South Africa. There are diverse articulations . . . frequently

Qur'an. Liberation & Pluralism

locked in fierce rivalry in their claims to be the privileged orthodox and
authentic voice of Islam in South Africa’ (Omar 1991, p. 50).

In the light of this ‘intrinsic pluralism’, Omar cautioned against the
state insisting on dealing only with a single entity among competing ones.
‘This caution, I shall later show, subsequently became crucial for the
question of gender equality and Muslim Personal Law. Omar, further-
more, appealed to religious people to avoid becoming the accommoda-
tion theologians of the new South Africa, ‘the African National Congress
‘at prayer’ (ibid) and advocated a position described as ‘positive neutrality
vis-d-vis all political parties of a furure democratic South Africa’. Finally,
he raised the crucial question of discrimination in the name of religion:
“How will it (the state} deal with religious organizations and individuals
who persist in articulating and practising discrimination and bigotry in a
new South Africa, subtly cloaking it in religious garb?’ (ibid., p. 52)

While the conference itself was valuable in articulating the concerns
and hopes of religious people in a new South Africa, its most significant
outcome was the decision to respond positively to Albie Sachs" appeal to
the religious community to draw up a ‘religious charter which would
embrace all the rights expected in a new post-apartheid South Africa’
(Sachs 1991). What followed was the most remarkable consultative
process religion in South Africa had ever experienced. A WCRP work-
shop, comprising twenty-five representatives from different religious
groups, met in June 1992 and produced an initial draft based on feed-
back from a number of regional interfaith and single faith conferences.
For a further six months the draft was widely circulated and debated in
synagogues, mosques, universities, colleges, temples and in WCRP semi-
nars. Al-Qalam and Muslim Views ran regular ‘updates’ which dealt
extensively with the various critiques and amendments which a large
number of Muslim community meetings, academics and activists were
producing, as well as denunciations of the entire idea and process."

‘This process culminated in a National Interfaith Conference held in
Pretoria in November 1992. Atcended by 150 representatives from
diverse religious communities throughout the country, the “Declaration
on Religious Rights and Responsibilities’ was adopted after three days of
debate (see Appendix Three). The preamble to the declaration acknow
edged the diversity of religious commitments, expressed regret abour the
way ‘religion has been used to contribute to the oppression, exploitation
and suffering of people’, paid homage to ‘the courageous role played
by many religious people in upholding human dignity, justice and
peace in the face of repression and division’ and expressed its belief

238

From the Wilderness to the Promised Land

that religious communities ‘can play a role in redressing past injustices
and the reconstruction of society’. The declaration itself affirmed free~
dom of conscience ~ including the freedom of accepting or changing
religious affiliation,’ the equality of all religious communities before the
law, and the rights to religious education, access to public media,
recognition of systems of customary law, propagation of teachings and
the observance of holy days.

A wide spectrum of Muslim organizations were present, the widest
spectrum of Muslims ever to meet under one roof. ‘It is ironic’, com-
mented a Muslim delegate, ‘that it took an interfaith meeting to bring
such diverse Muslim groups together, not even the National Muslim
Conference had all those organizations represented’ (Al-Qalam,
November 1992, p, 3). Another delegate said: “There was a common
purpose in the Muslim delegation. We were there to level the playing
field . . . For too long has a particular brand of one religion been officially
favoured. Thus as Muslims we attempted to infuse as much of an Islamic
world view as possible into the declaration . . . our objective was to make
real gains for Muslims as a community in @ post-apartheid South Africa’
(ibid,). ‘This historic exercise in grassroots religious consultation reflected
the best in the democratic ethos, making words such as ‘mandates’,

on-
sultation’, ‘accountability’ and ‘transparency’ an indispensable part of
progressive political currency. Once again, even if unknowingly, the
struggle for freedom was teaching religion a thing or two about human
dignity and the need to involve people in the decisions which would
affect their lives.

‘There were, however, two major problems in the composition of the
Muslim delegations: there wasn’t a single black person among the twenty-
six present and there were only two women. It was the marginalization of
‘women, reflected in the latter problem, which ensured that the co-operation
achieved among the Muslims at the conference was going to be rather short-
lived. The next phase of the South African jihad had begun: women, the
other component of the mustad'afun, were now demanding their liberation

The Gender Jihad

There are several significant reasons for the prominent part that the strug-
gle for gender equality plays in South Africa. As I showed in chapter 1,
numerous groups inside South Africa had contributed to the struggle
for freedom. Carrying their multiplicity of identities - Muslim,
Rastafarian, feminist, coloured, trade unionist, liberal, gay, young per-

230

. Liberation & Pluralism

son, business person, conservative — the vast majority of South Africans
were skilfully mobilized under various constituencies within the national
democratic struggle, for the broader objective of the liberation struggle.
The fact that many of these individuals were simultaneously organized at
more than one level of identity meant that the other dimensions, with
their own unique agendas, were seldom neglected, even if they were of
little immediate consequence for the struggle. In the Call, for example,
activists organized as Call members with a peculiarly Islamic agenda,
which they nurtured in their meetings. This shaped their input at the se
ond level, that of UDF-ANC activism. This was also the case with femi-
nists, who recognized that, although women were oppressed as gendered
beings, they were also part of a national liberation struggle in which very
many did not appreciate the significance of the struggle for gender equality,
Engaging in the struggle for national liberation, and invoking landmarks in
that struggle, such as the march of thousands of women against the pass
laws to the Union Buildings in Pretoria in August 1956, they used every
‘opportunity to drive home the relationship between sexism and racism.

Secondly, the South African struggle had the immense advantage of a
formidable international solidarity movement, the like of which no other
political cause has known. The activists in these movements, largely
based in North America and Europe, were essentially people who had
identified racism as but one of a number of socio-ideological forces that
they believed dehumanized people, and which had to be relentlessly
opposed. Among the other such forces were consumerism, sexism,
homophobia, the arms industry and the destruction of the environment
Freed from the concerns about the next meal for their own kids, they
could actually think about the survival of the white rhino. While they did
not place all of these concerns on the agenda of the numerous South
African activists with whom they interacted, it was inevitable that the lat-
ter would be influenced and would even identify with the issues, which
would otherwise have been seen as divisive or diversionary.

‘The Call has, since its inception, been committed to a radical chal-
Jenging of the position of women in Islam and has consistently focused
on the specificity of women’s oppression and patriarchal relations within
the family and society. ‘The very first item under the heading ‘What is our
Line?* (i.e., ideological position) in the organization's information
brochure is about women and states:

We believe in the equality of men and women and in the liberation
of women from {jurisprudential] legacies pertaining to the period of
Muslim decline. We believe that our country will never be free until

240

From the Wilderness to

its women are also free from oppressive social norms. Women must
focus on the rights being withheld from them today rather than bask-
ing in the knowledge that the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) had in
fact stipulated these rights. (Call of Islam 1984, p. 2)

The Call undertook a consistent critique of the traditionalist interpreta-
tion of the role of women in Islam and regularly denounced the fact that
‘for far coo long Muslim men have treated women as they treat their
beards; the more control they have over women, the greater they judge
their faith to be’ (Call of Islam n.d., Women Arise! The Quran Liberates
You!’). In line with its own earlier reformist agenda, the MYM has also
always been concerned, even if rather condescendingly in its early stages,

with the religious marginalization of women.

In the period preceding the elections, and well thereafter, progressive
Islam found a new focus for much of its activity and campaigns in the
issue of gender discrimination. In fact, in the case of the Call, it may even
be said that this was the single issue with which they have dealt indepen-
dently of the short-term political demands of the liberation movement.
The MYM, describing women as ‘the most oppressed sector in South
Africa’, and arguing that ‘Muslim women, despite the qur'anic position
regarding the liberation of women are oppressed even within the Muslim
community by Muslims themselves* (Muslim Views, August 1990, p. 11),
initiated a number of programmes focusing on gender equality. This
included the formation of a Gender Desk, the organizing of a number of
seminars, courses and public conferences on the position of Muslim
women, a rethinking of the shari‘ah provisions regarding women and a
campaign for women to pray in mosques.” A perusal of the contents of
the Muslim newspapers and pamphlets after 2 February 1990 shows that,
other than the more explicit political developments and the role of
Muslims therein, gender equality was the single most debated issue

‘Two major developments reflected all the tensions between the old
and new South Africas and the fault lines between a principled progres-
sive Islam; and a simplistically anti-apartheid Islam; the formation and
collapse of the Muslim Personal Law Board (MPLB) and the controversy
mont Main

around the delivery of a sermon by a woman in the C!
Road Mosque.

Muslim Personal Law: Legitimizing the Illegitimate?

MPL had for long been a carrot dangled in front of Muslims to encour-
age them to become more fully a part of a particular political party’s

on & Pluralism

agenda. Towards the end of 1985 the apartheid regime, through the
South African Law Commission, called for proposals in this regard.
These were, in varying degrees, entertained for discussion by the clerical
bodies, the Islamic Council of South Africa and the Association of
‘Muslim Attomeys and Lawyers. Given that these moves were initiated in
the tricameral parliament, the Call and the MYM argued that MPL
should never be used as a means of co-
oppression and protested at the lack of consultation with the community.
At the National Conference of Muslims in May 1990 and during the
election campaign in 1994 this emerged as the most significant demand
of Muslims, and one to which Mandela personally promised to accede,
‘The apartheid regime never recognized Muslim marriages, other than
for purposes of taxation, and all Muslims born from such unions were
regarded as ‘illegitimate’. While marriage and divorce are but one dimen-
sion of MPL,” it is understandable that the lack of recognition in this spe-
cific area should be viewed as particularly offensive. Furthermore, the
chaotic and manifestly unjust way MPL. was, and still is, administered led
to widespread support for its regularization. “Today’, said Ebrahim Moosa,

pting Muslims in their own

we are saddled with a Muslim clergy whose obsession with the letter
of the law ~ rather than its spirit ~ rendered . .. MPL redundant and
obsolete, Instead of bringing about justice to parties concerned in
personal law disputes, it has the opposite effect . .. An unscrupulous
husband can for a paltry sum divorce his wife at the hands of an
equally unscrupulous clergyman or marry another female to satisfy
his hedonistic impulse (Moosa 19886, p. 1)

Wives had no recourse to civil protection: in the event of a divorce the
wife usually ended up without a roof over her head, even when the house
was jointly purchased. When the husband died without leaving a will his
parents and/or siblings were his only legal heirs. Nor were men under any
legal obligation to provide maintenance to their farmer wives in the case
of abandonment or divorce.

It is thus not surprising that many South African Muslims viewed the
introduction of MPL. as their share of the ‘New South Africa cake’, Yet
this cake contained some ingredients clearly incompatible with the tradi-

tional interpretations of MPL: non-sexism and guarantees of non-<dis-
crimination. For Muslims who had for long fought for the marginalized
and the oppressed, to now succumb to interpretations of the shari"ah that
perpetuated the subjugation of women, was tantamount to legitimizing
the illegitimate.

242

From the Wilderness to the Promised Land

‘The matter of both MPL and African Traditional Law had evoked
considerable controversy in the multi-party talks that followed the break-
down of Codesa. The Congress of Traditional Leaders (Contralesa)
demanded that customary law be excluded from a Bill of Rights and be
exempt from the gender equality guarantee of the proposed Bill of Rights.
Contralesa, furthermore, argued ‘that communities subject to customary
law and traditional authority (i.e., rural communities) should remain
exclusively subject to such authority’. Muslim clerics, not unsurprisingly,
indicated their support for these proposals ‘in so far as it applies to
‘Muslim women’ (Al-Qalam, October 1993, p. 1). At the other side of the
spectrum, one saw the tension between an indomitable belief in gender
equality and an equally stubborn persistence, more accurately, a desper-
ate hope, that this was compatible with the Qur'an, Acknowledging the
need for customary and religious law to be recognized by civil law,
Shamima Shaikh of the MYM, echoing the view of progressive Muslims
throughout the country, nevertheless argued that customary or religious
law ‘cannot be exempted from the Bill of Rights and be allowed to per-
petuate inequalities. To even consider excluding any sector of society
from being covered by the Bill of Rights is an injustice and makes a
mockery of the Bill’ (ibid.). Fatimah Hujaij from the Call said that she
recognized the absolute equality of men and women as sanctioned by the
Qur’an (emphasis mine) and said that the Call had submitted to the
multi-party talks ‘that they recognize this right as sanctioned by the
Qur'an , . . and not endorse these [Contralesa] recommendations as they
deny women equality with men’ (ibid.). Others showed a finer apprecia-
tion for the tensions inherent in MPL. and the Bill of Rights, At a subse-
quent seminar Soraya Bosch pleaded for a review of Islamic law to bring
{ft into line with the current transformation in South Africa, Ebrahim
‘Moosa identified areas of these tensions and Rasool called for ‘the mobi-
lization and empowerment of Muslim women to ensure that they play a
leading role in the implementation of MPL’ (ibid., p. 4)

‘The MPL Board, initiated by a number of Muslim ANC Members of
Parliament, was inaugurated in August 1994 with a fifteen-member exec-
utive committee consisting of clerics from a number of different organiza
tions, including the MJC as well as representatives from the MYM and
the Call. One of the Call's delegates and a Member of Parliament,
Fatimah Hujaij, was elected as one of the vice-presidents in a reserved
slot and Ebrahim Moosa as assistant secretary general. The very first
meeting of the MPL Board after its inauguration Isid bare all the ten-
sions, One observer described it as a ‘war zone’ (Al-Qalam, March 1995,

243

Qur'an. Lideration & Pluralism

p. 1), between progressive Islam and the conservative clerics. Much of
the discussion centred around the agenda and procedure of the meeting
itself, the question of mandates and representativeness and the structure
of the board that ensured a veto for the clergy in all essential matters.

The secretary general of the MPL Board had, without authorization,
made two submissions to the Constitutional Assembly on behalf of the
board, calling for the establishment of shari‘ah courts, the appointment of
Muslim judges to the existing judiciary and for five clerical organizations
to have the authority to decide on the dissolution of Muslim marriages.
‘The most contentious submission though, was that MPL be exempt from
constitutional challenge and the Bill of Rights. The Call and the MYM
opposed both the process and the contents of the submission, They
demanded structural changes, whereby the cleric organizations would not
have effective sole contro! of the board and women would be represented
in larger numbers (only six out of eighty members were women) and they
pleaded for an end to the vilification of some board members by others. A
few weeks later, a two-paragraph letter signed by its president, Nazim
Mohammed, and the secretary general was received by all the board
members, informing them of its dissolution in terms of a resolution signed
by a majority of its membership. Moosa described the dissolution as ‘a
sign of cowardice and the inability of the alleged ‘wlama’ groups to deal
with the problems faced by SA Muslims’ (ibid.),

‘The clerics had been for years reluctant openly to demand recogni-
tion by the apartheid state and felt that their time, too, had arrived, With
the introduction of MPL, to be administered by them, they would be
accorded a much-longed-for legal authority role. With issues such as the
husband's right to unilateral divorce, polygamy, and gender differentiated
or discriminatory inheritance to be decided by an all-male clergy, the pro-
gressive Muslims argued that the clergy’s project was simply about the
further disempowerment of victims (women) and the legal empowerment
of male authority.

With the MPL Board up in smoke, the disparate Muslim forces were
free to argue theit own positions in discussions with the Minister of
Justice and proposals to the Constitutional Assembly. The way the wind
was blowing became evident at a hearing before a sub-committee of the
Constitutional Assembly in May 1995, attended by nearly two hundred
religious leaders and academics. The chair, Fatimah Hujaij, an ANC MP
from the Call, opened the hearings by inviting proposals and arguments
on gender, religion and morality ‘which are consistent with other aspects
of the constitution’. As one of the Muslims who addressed the session, I

From the Wilderness to the Promised Land

argued against the elevation of any cultural or religious community and
traditions over that of another by exempting their laws from the Bill of
Rights: ‘Should the state advantage one group over another, including
religious over non-religious, then it would violate the ethos of justice
which brought it into being’ (A/-Qalam, May 1995). Even the official
MIC speaker, in a clear departure from his organization's position,
argued for MPL ‘which was consistent with women’s rights’ (ibid.)
Virtually all of the Muslim interventions from the floor argued for the
subjection of MPL to the proposed Bill of Rights. Shoaib Omar, secre-
tary of the defunct MPL Board and the legal expert of conservative Islam
in South Africa, intervened once to take issue with Ebrahim Moosa’s
pleas for ‘moral pluralism’. After the lunch break most of the conserva-
tive clerics failed to return.

In October 1996, the Constitutional Assembly adopted the final draft
of the country’s constitution. Not only did all the equality clauses survive
the onslaughts of hundreds of thousands of petitions and numerous
marches, but they emerged extended and even more firmly entrenched in
two significant ways, Firstly, while the equality clause in the Interim
Constitution only had a vertical effect, i.e., between the state and its citi-
zens, it was now extended to the horizontal level, where all persons, pri-
vate companies and employees were also compelled to uphold these
rights, Secondly, in the Interim Constitution, legislation recognizing sys-
tems of religious personal and family law was insulated from challenge
under the Bill of Rights. Section 9 of the final draft, which reads as fol-
Jows, undermines this caveat so thoroughly as to render it meaningless:

1, Everyone is equal before the law and has the right to equal protection
and benefit of the law.
Equality includes the full and equal

joyment of all rights and free-
doms, To promote the achievement of equality, legislative and other
measures designed to protect or advance persons, who are disadvan-
taged by unfair discrimination may be taken

3. The state may not unfairly discriminate directly or indirectly against
anyone on one or more grounds, including race, gender, pregnancy,
marital status, ethnic oF s¢
disability, religion, conscience, belief, culture, language and birth.

4. No other person may unfairly discriminate directly or indirectly
against anyone on one or more grounds in terms of subsection 3.

5. Discrimination on one or more grounds listed in subsection 3 is
unfair unless itis established that the discrimination is fair.

al origin, colour, sexual orientation, age,

745

Qur'an, Liberation & Pluralism

Women: The Day Coming Down Meant Going Up!

‘Amina Wadud-Muhsin, an eminent Muslim academic and theologian
from the USA, was in South Africa to artend an international conference
on ‘Islam and Civil Society’. On Friday, 11 August 1994 she took to the
rostrum in front of the pulpit at the Claremont Main Road Mosque and
delivered what was, for all intent and purpose, a sermon. While several
women had, in fact, previously addressed men in mosques in South
Africa, this was the first time that it was on the occasion of the congrega-
tonal prayers on a Friday. Although it preceded the more formal ritual of
a rehearsed Arabic sermon, in the religious imaginaire of Muslims it was
‘every bit as significant as the sermon itself. The mosque was packed and
the mood, rather than curious, was euphoric and celebratory. The
‘women, many clad in black with only their faces and hands exposed, had
until that day usually worshipped upstairs. Now they came down, sat in
space normally reserved for men, separated by a piece of rope, and never
went back again.”

More committed to consciously transforming gender roles in the
community rather than seeking publicity and conscious of the major rup-
ture with tradition, the organizers perhaps deliberately downplayed the
significance of the event by insisting that it was ‘only a pre-sermon lec-
ture’, The extent of this rupture was, however, clearly recognized by the
dat
the nearby a/-Jamiah Mosque in Stegmann Road from where they
marched to the Main Road Mosque. Here, after some of them had had
their firearms discovered by newly installed metal detectors and had been
disarmed, one of the leaders was invited to give a talk on their opposition

MIC and its supporters. The following Friday a large crowd gathe

to a Woman speaking at a mosque. Without further incident they returned
to the Stegmann Road Mosque, where the congregational prayers were
being delayed. In February 1995 a crowd of a few hundred, led by the
chair of the MJC,
attempt to disrupt the Annual General Meeting of the mosque and to

ahim Gabriels, made a violent but unsuccessful

unseat the imam and the mosque committee. Amid the brandishing of
firearms and the assaulting of several female members of the congregation,
the situation returned to calm after it had been agreed that all protesters
would be able to apply for membership of the mosque and, if accepted,
allowed unhindered participation in the following AGM.

This abortive attempt to take control of the Claremont Main Road
Mosque led to another huge controversy in the community, all of it duti-
fully reported in the local and national press. In response to several death

246

From the Wilderness to the Promised Land

threats, the imam of the mosque (and national vice-president of WCRP),
‘Abdul Rashied Omar, said: “These threats are not new, we can deal with
it much better now after going through the anti-apartheid struggle. [For
us] the liberation struggle inchides the issues of race, class and gender’
(Al-Qalam, August 1994, p. 2)

The MJC, not wanting to be seen as the key instigators of the vio-
Jence against what was widely regarded as a human rights issue in the
new South Africa, initiated a short-lived Forum of Muslim Theologians
to wage its battles against ‘mosques that wanted to allow women to
address congregations in the mosque’ (ibid.). The Claremont Main Road
Mosque, keen to elicit the support of 3s many non-congregants as possi-
ble, launched the equally short-lived Campaign Against Religious
Intolerance, which I spearheaded.

In what is clearly reflective of the mosque’s commitment to a com-
prehensive sense of justice towards the demonized Other, the following
months saw more women and Christian clerics addressing the Friday
congregation. By far the most moving initiative, though, was the address
of an HIV positive Muslim woman from Singapore. Sitty Dhiffy, a young
mother, contracted the disease from her husband in 1991 and since then
both he and her eighteen-month-old son have died.

‘We must acknowledge that HIV and Aids infect everybody and is no
longer considered only a gay disease. I and my other Muslim friends
need support from our own Muslim community. We cannot survive
alone. The Muslim community must talk about Aids. Aids is just
another disease like cancer, We must help people get rid of this
social stigma, Let us talk about oppression, love, happiness and dis
crimination, We need to put aside our own personal judgements and
just open our eyes and our hearts (Dhiffy 1995, p. 2)

Many of us wept openly, for Sitty, for our own ignorance, for the many
Muslims who cling to their own prejudices and their yearnings for con-
trol, for those who are so terrified of shedding their negati
the Other — images that succeed not only in blocking out the Other but
also in imprisoning the Self. Ebrahim Rasool spoke for the entire congre-
gation in his response to Dhiffy’s talk, saying:

images of

Aids knows no colour, gender, sex, religion or age and there had to
be Muslims willing to brave the tide of bigotry to reach out to those
who also had a right to the infinite mercy of Allah .. . Muslims have
to be a lot more introspective on the question of Aids, Creating
external enemies to justify the sores within our own community was

247

Qur'an. Liberation & Pluralism

not the way to cope with Aids. We have to recognize our own faults
and in doing 50 become infinitely more human to those vulnerable
and marginalized around us. (Muslim Views, December 1995, p. 3)

Nazim Mohammed, president of the MJC, in his denunciation on radio
of the Wadud-Muhsin sermon was correct when he argued that the
debate on women speaking in mosques was connected to similar debates
in Christianity and Judaism. The conservative clerics have clearly recog-
nized the implicit and unstated objectives of the progressive Muslims;
women officiating in all worship ceremonies in mosques as an intrinsic
part of human rights and gender equality. ‘Where will it all lead?’, the
conservatives ask and point to the West where ‘moral chaos reigns’ in
Other religion. The progressives have hitherto avoided this question and
just point to the “inher

ently immoral nature of gender discrimination’.

Far more significant than the interreligious connection in this debate,
though, is the South African ‘struggle’ connection. Organizations such as
the Call and the MYM have been deeply committed to the struggle
against apartheid and have been very active in the many debates that
have shaped our country’s Bill of Rights and its constitution. Alongside
most of the progressive forces in the country, they have made the connec-
tion between the struggle against the dehumanization of racialism and
that of gender oppression. The struggle has, furthermore, taught them
that people's humanity is in large measure given meaning to the extent
that they, especially the marginalized, are empowered and, on the other
hand, the powerful, even the religious ones, are disempowered

Conclusion: Progressive Islam

Imprisoned in a Mosque?

A seemingly trivial incident during the course of the board's second and
last meeting captured all the tensions between not only the approach of
conservative Islam and progressive Islam, but also between a simplistic
anti-apartheid religious rhetoric and a principled progressive commit-
ment to oppose all forms of discrimination. Nazim Mohammed, former
ly a patron of the UDE, leader of the MJC and chair of the meeting, who
takes much pride in his putative stands against apartheid, announced ‘a
presidential decre

that women without headscarves would not be
allowed into the meeting. In the first place, while a number of Muslim
clerics were, in varying degrees, supportive of the liberation struggle,
they clearly understood liberation in a rather simplistic sense, as

248

From the Wilderness to the Promised Land

meaning an end to racialism rather than the empowering of all sections
of the marginalized. Indeed, for many of them it really meant the dawn of
an era when they could exercise power over others with the unashamed
support of state structures.” Secondly, these who merely supported ‘the
struggle’ as opposed to those who waged the struggle, were simply inc
pable of making any connection between racism and sexism as two forms
of the denial of basic human rights, and nor did all those who waged the
struggle make these connections.” These connections between racism
and sexism, the product of ongoing engagement with the qur'anic text
and of solidarity with women, were only made by those who were part of
ongoing communitarian exegesis, the circles of praxis and reflection.
Moreover, what a number of observers described as ‘meaningless bicker-
ing’ was, in fact, the outcome of radically different approaches to doing
theology and approaching the word of God. The words ‘consultation’,
‘transparency’, ‘accountability’ and ‘mandates’ stood in stark contrast to
‘presidential decrees’; Rosieda Shabodien speaks of the board's workings
being ‘replete with undemocratic procedures, opaqueness and barely
concealed exclusion of progressives from decision-making’ (1995, p. 17).
Under the cover of the struggle, progressive men and women had shifted
from essentialist and absolutist notions of knowledge owned by ‘qualified
repositories’, all of whom were men. “The people’ — al-nas — had arrived,
‘What the anti-apartheid cleric had simplistically believed to be a clever
use of several verses from the Qur'an, as bullets in an anti-apartheid arse-
nal, was something much more profound. ‘The people shall govern’ was
no empty slogan; al-nas were determined to have a share in the construc-
tion of meaning and to do so in terms of their own perspectives from the
underside of history and the gender pile, and from a principled commit-
ment to human rights.” Finally, the insistence of the progressives on the
invoking of context along with texts, indicated that the boundaries
between texts and context were no longer tenable. Others such as Hassan
Solomon, who thought that the cake could still be unbaked, argued that
‘the role of women [is a matter} of law based on nusus (sacred texts} and
should be debated in that context’ and that they ‘will find it disturbing if
the nusus are replaced by secularist/madernist trends’ (A/-Qalam, June
1992, p, 15). They failed to appreciate the fact it was not a question of
secularism or modernism replacing the text, but one of a stubborn, even
if inexplicable, belief in a text, inseparably wedded to an equally stubborn
commitment to justice. While the Call says that ‘we must unleash a
debate on the question of women so that equality and freedom become
achievable’, it hastens to add that ‘this debate need not depart from
the pages of the Qur'an at all for within these pages there is sufficient

249

Qur'an, Liberation & Pluralism

evidence to suggest that Muslim women can and must play a full role in our
society’ (Call of Islam n.d., Women Arise! The Qur'an Liberates You!, p. 1).
With no contemporary mode! of liberation in minority situations,
progressive Muslims were compelled to engage in ad hoc theologizing.
Very little of this progressive theology was ever really embraced by the
clerics or the community at large. The purely utilitarian employment by
the clergy of ‘struggle texts’, usually supplied by the Call, excluded pos-
sibilities of an internal modernization or search for contextuality. The
vast majority of Muslims have not begun to think through all of these
issues, although the lives of ordinary Muslim women are filled with hor-
rendous tales of wife battering, sexual abuse, and wife abandonment, as
the social workers in the offices of the MJC will readily testify. Many
are convinced that the redress of all their pain is located within tradi-
tional notions of the male being the sultan in the home and that they
merely require a gentle sultan who observes Islamic morality. How con-
nected to ordinary women and their concerns are these progressive
Muslims? Will this be another case of the masses cheering while their
liberators are being fed to the lions? This growing distance between
progressive Islamists and ordinary Muslims was also seen in responses
to the anti-drug marches and marches in solidarity with the Muslims
oppressed elsewhere. While progressive Islam in the 1980s was mani-

fested on the streets, in townships, in church halls, mosques and in a
plethora of organizations, it now seems to be located in the portals of
academia and in a single mosque. The extent of the broader influence
of its congregants is formidable in academia, politics, the mass media
and education. However, these domains are not essentially the home
turf of a progressive theology, which has praxis in active and shared sol-
idarity with the marginalized. While the gender jihad and the very
humane and crucial extension of the concept of the mustad’afun into
the area of those afflicted with Aids can correctly be regarded as such
solidarity, its lapse into a middle-class discourse entirely unconnected
to the concems of the poor ought to be a matter of deep concern to
progressive Muslims,

‘We thus find that not only is the country in the wilderness, but so is
Islam. In many ways the Western Cape remains fertile
ground for the nurturing of progressive Islam. Despite the present
wilderness there remain a number of indicators that a local theology of
liberation, which must embrace the quest for comprehensive human.
rights and religious pluralism, may still see its Promised Land. Some of
these indicators are the legacy of the MYM and CIF of the early 1960s,
the assertiveness of women, the presence of strong and often progressive

progressi

250

From the Wilderness to the Promised Land

Mosque committees, the liberative experience of the 1980s, the pleasant
coexistence with the religious Other, the growing intellectual interest in
Islam at progressive universities and the generally enlightened atmos-
phere which characterizes this area.

Equally significant for the future of progressive Islam in this part of
the world is the fact that Islam will continue to be shaped and reshaped
by South Africa, a new South Africa, which is in some ways the product
of a contempt as well as a deep reverence for religion ~ a contempt for all
expressions of religion that fostered and justified racial discrimination,
exclusivism, exploitation and oppression. Conversely, the new South
Africa came about through the active labour of numerous men and
women who, moved by their indomitable faith in a just God, sought to
give active expression to the dream of country wherein all of God's peo-
ple would be fully human and fully alive. It is this reverence for all of
God’s people, what the Quakers call ‘that of God in all of us’, that is the
highest religious value the new constitution seeks to uphold, when it
insists that equality for all human beings cannot be subjected to exclu-
sivist and discriminatory interpretations of religious or traditional law.

Notes

|. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission under the leadership of the Archbishop Emeritus
of Cape Town, Desmond Tutu. 6 3 government-apposnted but completely independent body to
‘uncover the truth of the political crimes of the aparcheid era. While ic has the power to decide
‘on individual amnesty. may ako refer matters to the Attorney General for prosecution,

2. This was giving effect to an idea first mooted by the late Joe Slovo, the then chair of the
South African Communist Party that a ‘sunset clause’ be included to gwe the NP and the
largely racine civil service a period to acclmauize to democracy

3, Founded by "Abd al Qadir al-Murabit, a member of the Darqawi Sufi order, the group
adheres to a strict perspective of Islam as they believe i was lived out in the city of Medina
during the life of Muhammad and recorded in the works of Anas ibn Malik (d. 795), one of
the four scholars upon whose views Sunni jurisprudence is based. The group advocates
‘supremacy of the Law ef Allah above all man-made laws. To strive (had) in Une way of Allah
In establishing Deen, to be compassionate amongst themselves, co be firm against Kuff?
(Musi Views, February 1992, p. 4), Although a rather small group, they have been organizing
ln South Africa, particularly among black Musims, since 1984

4, Despite the fact that Achat Cassiem, the Qibla leader, appeared at the Western Cape
launch of the PAC mandesto during the election campaign and the widespread perception of
their mutual affingy (Mum Views, November 1993, p. 8), in a rather confusing see of advertise
rents in a local duly, Qibla appeared to call for a boycott of the elections. Asked what role
(Qibla envisaged playing in the new South Alrica, a Qibla spokesperson responded that ‘any
revolutionary movement worthy of the name pursues the ideal of a just socal order. The
"new South Africa” Is a figment of the oppressor’s imagination. The struggle for justice continues
‘unabated’ (ibd.). Cassie's response to a direct question about thelr relaconship with the PAC
was also ne very helpful to anyone Interested in some clarity. The quesbon is an improper one!
said he, because in a country which has oppresiors and oppressed the question should rather
be: “What is my relacionship with the oppressed people?” (A-Qalarn, December 1991. p.7)

251

Qurvan. L

jon & Pluralism

5. Haroon was one of South Alrica's most committed acuvists and a brine political analyst
He died ina car accident in May 1994 at the age of 34, just a month after the birth of a South
‘Atria to which he had devoted his entire life from the age of fourteen,

6, This fs based on personal conversations Mr Deedat had with mein 1984.

7. In May 1996, a pamphlet titeed Tofakkur with the Call's logo appeared, calling upon Muslims
to vote for the ANC in the local government elections. The fact that such a message did not
come in the name of the Call and that the pamphlet itself was not the product of the Call,
Indicates its demise in the Cape. In the northern province of Gauteng one stl finds an orga-
nizational encity under the name of the Call of lsum. Its chair, theoretically also National
chair of the Call, Dr Yusuf Salogi. is one of the founders of Une Call in that area. They meet
“Yrom time to me’ and are engaged in what seems to be a very innovative housing project
for the disadvantaged. A number of them are local councillors and one a Member of
Parliament. While they are seemingly united in their support for the ANC. the discordant
voices emerging from them on a number of other issues such as MPL or the role and pres-
tence of women in mozques gives an impression of an ideolopeally disparate group

8, This was of course also true for foreign funders and, in the case of che Call, had a signi
‘ant negative impact on the adminstrative infrastructure.

9. There were several unsuccessful atempts to invuate some sort of joint organizational pro:
gramme between the MYM and the Call during 1994 and 1995. The Call, misjudging the dura-
bility of is struggle pedigree and burdened with a misplaced poliueal arrogance, played the
dificule suitor. The Call aso masread the leadership onentation of the MYM and overestimat-
{ed the modernst. as opposed to Mberauve, element therein Two elements which would have
made such a merger a rather messy one at a navonal level are the conservative nature of the
MYM in KwaZulu-Natal and of the Callin Gauteng.

10. Klippies Kriezinger. the editor of the conference proceedings, iNustrates the point by
telling 2 wonderful story about beginning a new day The disciples of a Jewish rabbi were
debating the question of when exactly daylight bepnt. One ventured: "It when you can se
the diference between a sheep and goat in the distance’ Another suggested: ‘Kit when you
‘ean s0e the difference beeween a fig tree and an olive tree at a distance And 40 % went on.
‘When they eventually asked the Rabbi for his view, he said "When one human being looks
into the face of anocher and says: "This is my sister” or "This & my brother”, then the night
Is over and the day has begun’ (Kricnger 19a. pp.

11. Qibla, noting that the idea emerged from Albie Sachs, a Jew and a Communist,
denounced it as a Zionist and Communist plot. (AtQalom, 1992, "A diferent kind of debate
November, pp. 4-5) On the other side of the spectrum, dhe lbadur Rahman Study Group,
bed ac the Claremont Main Road Mosque, took the final decliration so seriously that it
conducted a series of five seminars to discuss

12, This 6s parcicubarly sgnficare gwen the traditional Muslim point of view that apostates
should be jailed for three days dunng which all-out attempts thould be made to have them
recant. failng which they are to be kiled The presence of repretencabves of viral all of the
country's traditional cleric organizations made this acceptance all the more remarkable
‘Aternatively. and probably more correcty, it could be a statement of the complete abuence of
any sense of mandates, accountability or reporc-backs that characterized these organizations

1. Although ici quite common for all the mosques in the Cape to have facilities for women
worshippers. this s not the casein the nurthern parts of the country

14. Other aspects include matrimonial property, laws of succession, guardianship, custody
and adoption, maintenance and pubhe trusts

15, Lam unaware of such an event having occurred in the world of Iam. AEQolam claimed
that the event was historic in the workd of Islam and the Jam‘otl Ulam of Natal said that
they viewed "this pracnce. which unprecedented in the entre hatory of Islam since the
time of the Prophet’ with “alarm and great concern’ (Al Qalom, August 1994),

16, Since that occasion a rather small congregation has taken an even greater leap in the

252

From the Wilderness to the Promised Land

gender phod. In the northern province of Gauteng up to twenty people meet on Fridays and
have an entirely non-discriminatory congregatoral prayer Although separated on wo sides
of the prayer area with the men on one side and, next to them, the women, who often
preach and lead the prayers. During the month of Ramadan they have abo been meeting,
with women, more often than not. lading the prayers.

17, The similarities between the IFP of Buthelez! and the Muslim clergy bodies, particularly
the MIC. both tradicional entities drawing strength from leaders rather than ‘the people’ in
this regard are fascinating in a number of respects. Both genuinely believe that they were sig-
rificant players in the struggle against apartheid, 3 perception at variance with everyone out-
side their ranks. It was however not the new South Africa and contributing to it that they
found challenging, but the struggle to secure the best stakes init for chemnselves. The similar-
1y extends into the realm of negotiabons. Leon Wessels, a leading NP negotiator, speaks
about the diflerences between the IFP and the ANC during the multi-party talks leading to
Ue country’s frst elections: ‘We would arrive ata bilateral meeting with the ANC, and they
would be well prepared ... always properly mandated, and would always find a spirit of com-
promise. of seeking solutions ... This was not the situation with Inkatha, They would listen,
‘hey would not always be mandated properly. They couldn't explore ideas with us. Sometimes
‘hey read a lecture that sounded as though & had been written by Buchelezt, acacking all our
people’ (cited in Sparks 1995, pp. 187-8). Of course «was far from merely a question of orga:
‘izavonal or personal style. It was the tension between preaching and conversing, participatory
‘ection making and decrees, the old and the new, between tradiocn and renewal

18, Two of the Muslim male ANC Members of Pariament. both with impeccable struggle
pedigrees, were among the mort consistent supporters of the conservative positions
‘Another irony was the fact that thote who came on the Friday following Wadud:Muhsin's
ermon to protest at the Claremont Main Road Morque gathered at the Stegmann Road
Mosque and returned there afterwards for the delayed congregational prayers. This is the
same mosque where the martyred Imam Abdullah Haron had officiated. The mosque was
also one of the few where the congregants could receive an interminable diet of ant:
apartheid rhetoric during the 1980s.

19, The inabiliey of the derics and others to make the connections between their vocal com-
rmitments to human rights and their theology was also evidenced in the area of apostasy
Equally visible was the inability of many Islasts including myself. who were deeply commie:
thd to the struggle for justice, to understand all te implications of such a commitment. In
South Africa i was thus not surprising that many clerics and Islamists were vocal againit
apartheid yet supported the call to kil Salman Ruthie on the grounds of apostasy. A consid-
erable number of rank-and-file Call and MYM members alo supported the call for Rushdle's
sssattination This led to serious tensions within these organavions. The kind of argumenta-
‘non commonly heard around the Ahmadah-Cadian’ ntues, a putatively heretical group (Wf
this were a Muslim counery then they would have had to be killed after a twee-day period
within which to recant’), similarly, betrayed the inconsistencies In most Muslim opinion
regarding hurran rights. It seems to be a worthwhile commodity for most Muslims as long as
{vis one to be acquired for oneself and not to be bestowed on others. Given the minority
position of Muslims in South Africa the concern for the status of the religious Other or apos-
‘ates understandably never progressed beyond the Wdeological cultural dacourse of interfalch
solidarty and the socio-religous effects of ‘mingling with Uhe religious Other’

253

CONCLUSION

In onder to know whether Goal and Sunyata ni som

1, afterall, have something i

mon, we must not only

and mediate together, but we mut fi

vet together

with and for the oppressed

(Knitter 1987, p.

arding rela-

'n South Africa the reflections on the Qur'an’s position re
question of gender equality, assumed conscious and dynamic dimensions
within the framework of liberative praxis. The inverse of this is also true
opposition to this solidarity and the hermeneutical reflections based on it
came from those who espoused political quietism. In a situation of mani-
fest injustice, political quietism is really tantamount to collaboration with
injustice, When such collaboration was not overt, then affinities with the
ideological discourse of the apartheid regime were certainly evident in the
appeals of conservative theologians to avoid fimah (disorder), to obey the
political authorities, to identify with the lesser of the two evils (j.e,, with

apartheid rather than communism) and to hold on to the known, in this

case, sexist and exclusivist clerical theology, rather than the unknown of
communitarian theological reflections on the qur’snic text

Reflections on qur'anic hermeneutics took place within a context that

has a number of significant implications. There was an obvious contest

between meaning as a weapon of liberation for all the

ppressed and
marginalized and the defence, even if under the guise of apolitical theolo-

gy, of an unjust socio-economic system. It is these implications that are
now considered, in an attempt to draw the various sub-themes together
with the overall theme of this work; qur'anic support for a theology of
religious pluralism in the service of the marginalized and exploited, I
haye shown that the Qur'an supports solidarity with both the religious

- Conclusion

and areligious Other who is oppressed and marginalized. The hermeneu-
tical method of arriving at such a conclusion is equally significant. This
support is only discemed by those actually engaged in a struggle for liber~
ation, who seek the guidance of the Qur'an based on their liberative prax-
is, In the words of the Qur'an, ‘as for those who strive hard in Our cause,
‘We shall most certainly guide them on to the paths that lead unto Us?
(29:69)

Firstly, all readings of any text are necessarily contextual. If the word
of God is at all interested in being heard and actualized, as all Muslims
would insist, then the Qur’an has to be contextual. The difference about
a specific hermeneutic is that it is consciously located within a particular
context and, based on that context, geared towards a particular quest.
This is how Moosa and Rasool respectively, both key thinkers among
progressive Islamists in South Africa, express this commitment to
contextuality:

It becomes absolutely essential to discover the will of that Sustainer.
Overriding all this is the need to discover that will in a contextual
sense, We must know what the norm ~ the ‘ought’ to be ~ is in terms
of our objective situation in South Aftica as well as at a global level
(Moosa 1987a, pp. 3-4)

‘Any attempt to understand the Qur'an has to firmly root its bias in
the reality in which it finds itself, In our case, we have to work, not
in a vacuum, but in the South African reality, a reality which is fun-
damentally jahili [a combination of ignorance and arrogance] where
we see the flagrant disregard for the dictates of Allah when Allah
says: Allah created the heavens and the earth for just ends in order
that each soul may find its just recompense and none be wronged,
(Rasool 1983)

‘The universality of the Qur'an, far from being subverted by the contextu-
alization of its message is, in fact, at the basis of it. This universality is
located in the willingness of the faithful to hear the Qur'an speaking to
them in terms of their deepest and most painful reality at all times, and in
hearing that message in terms of what the text proclaims to be the
author's will for humankind. It is in the synthesis of suffering and God's
will that the meaning of the Qur'an's universal applicability lies for a
divided and exploitative society, not in a single of these two elements.
From the Exodus paradigm we have seen that, whatever the overall
divine scheme for humankind, the bestowal of grace upon and the
empowerment of the oppressed are the first stated aspects of this divine

255

Qur'an, Liberation & Pluralism

will. This means that the marginalized and oppressed are hermeneutically
privileged; they are favoured to arrive at a more correct understanding of
the text, because the author identifies with them. The inverse of this is
also true: those who are active participants in the socio-economic struc-
tures of oppression, even if they regard themselves as believers, are
excluded from this privilege. This privileged position notwithstanding,
the experience of the oppressed, however significant and consuming, is
not the sole measure of the veracity of the text. God has a broader will for
humankind and the Qur'an also deals with this. In chapter 6 we saw how
the Israelites worked at subverting their own liberation, The phenome-
‘non of a revolution consuming its own children is also a common one,
thus the importance of viewing the hermeneutical keys elaborated upon
in chapter 3 as a composite whole. It is in embracing all of these keys that
one can also prevent the gender jihad from becoming a purely middle~
class phenomenon

Secondly, while the commitment to a conscious location of the inter-
preter is evident in the statements by Rasool and Moosa cited above,
equally unmistakable is the notion that s South African context necessari~
ly implies that the purpose of interpretation is the transformation of an
unjust society, The Qur'an has a specific message for God’s people who
live (or die, as may have been the case in apartheid South Africa, or in
other oppressive societies) within a specific context. Without any signifi
cant awareness of what their Latin American Christian comrades in liber-
ation theology were engaged in, progressive Islamists in South Africa,
nevertheless, shared with them the belief that ‘only by standing with the
poor and by focusing our interpretive lens through the poor may we, too,
adequately experience and interpret history. The first step is taken: we
stand with the poor in the underside of history; from here we seck to
understand human existence’ (Chopp 1989, p. 48). Progressive Islamists
consistently argued that only within a commitment to liberation and con-

crete solidarity with the marginalized could one meaningfully understand
the word of God. This is not to say that such a reading of the Que’an in a
context of oppression is the only way of reading it and that meaning
thereby discovered is the only meaning; it is simply to insist this is the
only meaningful reading of a text coming from a God who is concerned
with justice for all humankind.

Such a commitment to justice also means a refusal to hold any per-
son or community hostage to the past of a community carrying the same
name, or with which the individual identifies. Nor can we hold people
hostage to arbitrarily imposed religious categories of exclusion that were

Conclusion

revealed in a specific historic context. The rethinking of theological cate-
gories such as iman, islam and kufr, far from being abstract theological
musing, is thus firmly grounded in this quest for justice.

‘Thirdly, the Qur'an bears testimony to the idea that it is a book of
understanding through praxis, rather than one of doctrine and dogma,
‘This is not to suggest that it does not deal with doctrine. Rather, it asks
that doctrine, which it outlines in very broad terms, be experienced and
detailed in praxis, Muhammad's own journey into and during prophet-
hood was reflective of this. As an inhabitant of pre-Muslim Hijaz, with its
many gods, its injustices, and tribal warfare, struggling to witness for jus-
tice and reconciliation, Muhammad existed before the Que’an and its
doctrinal content became a factor in his life and struggles. The first phase
of Muhammad's prophetic experience was his initial social awareness, the
accompanying distress at the manifold social sicknesses in Meccan soci-
ety and in the active involvement with his community. Known as ‘the
credible’, long before he experienced revelation, he had established an
image as one deeply concemed with, and involved in, the affairs of his
people. It was the agonizing reflections on those experiences that saw him
embarking on long retreats in the caves of the Mount of Light. The reve-
lation encountered here was the second phase of his journey into prophet-
hood. ‘The Qur'an may have existed prior to that, as the orthodoxy hold,
‘but what is of social consequence is that it reached Muhammad at the
second stage of his own evolution into prophethood. Praxis preceded the~
ory and when theory unfolded, it did so in terms of the reality experi~
enced by Muhammad and the people to whom he was sent.

‘The South African experience taught the progressive Islamist that
liberative praxis in solidarity with the oppressed is the initial act of
understanding the Qur'an. The fact that all of the oppressed did not
share their religious commitment, furthermore, meant that this solidari-
ty was also the initial act of ‘understanding’ the religious Other. In
chapter 1 I showed how this ‘understanding’ deliberately avoided the
Interfaith Forum where dialogue was confined to middle-class discus-
sions on the finer matters of faith, in isolation from liberative praxis.
‘The position of the progressive Islamist in South Africa finds an echo in
the belief of M. M, Merton that ‘the common response to the problems
of bumanization of existence in the modern world, rather than any com-
mon religiosity is the most fruitful point of entry for a meeting of faiths
at the spiritual depth in our time’ (cited in Knitter 1987, p. 186.).

In conditions of oppression and exploitation, any meaningful interre-
ligious encounter has to be rooted in the struggles of ordinary people.

257

Qurvan, Liberation & Plurali

It cannot be reduced to theological discourses or polemics, although it
may embrace them. South Africans of all faiths committed to the vision
of a non-racial, non-sexist and democratic society have had no alternative
but to have a dialogue with each other while engaged in confrontation
with the Pharaonic Other. Trust among these religionists materialized
only when they were jointly seen to be where the poor suffer and struggle,
This dialogue had little or no relation to purposes of merely understand-
ing each other o societal harmony.

When religionists committed to pluralism fail or refuse to recognize
thar all human responses and refusals to respond are located within a
socio-political context, then ‘understanding’, de facto, becomes an exten-
sion of the dominant ideological status quo characterized by injustice and
exploitation and the reduction of people to commodities. Interfaith
‘understanding’, in such a context, becomes little more than co-option to
strengthen the overall ideological framework of the powerful.

Within the context of the enormous injustice suffered by people all
over the world, the South African example is a powerful argument for the
moral imperative to disturb the peace. In the world today, interfaith soli-
darity for a just and human world is a far greater requirement than inter-
faith dialogue. It is good for us to understand the Other, to know about
their beliefs and to understand where they come from. It is, however,
only on the battlefield for human dignity for all of God’s people, for free-
dom and justice, that we shall see and experience the point of our faith
and what it actually does for us in our lives

Finally, the liberation of the Qur’an and that of theology are parallel
processes, Interreligious solidarity against apartheid gives credence to the
argument of Paul Knitter, a North American scholar of religion and liber-
ation, that ‘if the religions of the world, can recognize poverty and
‘oppression as a common problem, if they share a common commitment
to remove such evils, they will have the basis for reaching across their

incommensurabilities and differences in order to hear and understand
each other and possibly be transformed in the process’ (1987, p. 186),
Within the South African struggle for liberation and justice we have
seen how ‘believers from different traditions can experience together and
yet differently thar which grounds their resolves, inspires their hopes and
guides their actions to overcome injustice and promote unity’ (ibid., p.
186), The hermeneutical notions emerging from the synthesis of solidari-
ty and reflections on the Qur’an were a guide for further liberative praxis.
However they also contributed to the transformation, and even libera-
tion, both of the Islamist and of the Qur'an from the prison of a

258

Conclusion

contextual dogma and fossilized unjust deprecations of the Other,
Referring to this transformation in the MYM in the mid-1980s, Ebrahim
Moosa speaks about ‘a watershed event’, which ‘coincided with an initial
moment where an unfamiliar and difficult discourse was used . . . [and]
the aghast-looking faces when “epistemology”, “worldview” and
“hermeneutics” were spoken of’ (Moosa 1990, p. 28).

Tt meant that new questions were to be asked; familiar and accepted
assumptions would be questioned; in short, it meant a new way of
thinking, speaking and experiencing. What was previously ‘obvious’
to many of us was no longer accepted. Did not the Prophet question
the ‘obvious’ assumptions of Makkah and Madinah? He questioned
what seemed to many to be ‘obvious’. He questioned the ‘obvious
ness’ of slavery, exploitation, idolatry, etc. And resistance was sure to
come! (Ibid.)

We have seen how the progressive Islamists in South Africa succeeded in
establishing new attitudes to the Qur'an as a book of liberative guidance,
despite the vituperative denunciations by the conservative clerics. The
latter correctly viewed these new attitudes as part of a broader movement
against the professionalization of Islam by those who were also the
upholders of acquiescence ~ if not collaboration ~ with an unjust socio-
political status quo. This engagement in the struggle alongside others ha
in significant measures transformed the way Islam, the Qur'an and
Islamic theology are perceived by many in the Muslim community. While
abortion, the ubolition of the death penalty by the country's
Constitutional Court and gender equality are currently among the key
issues being debated, the liberative spirit characterizing much of this dis-
course is @ significant example of how approaches to Islam and the
Qur'an were humanized by the liberation struggle.

For Muslims the Qur'an is alive, in that it seeks to reach them as they
struggle not only to cope with the madness of humankind in our day and
age, but also to seek ways of effectively challenging the madness. That
this be done side by side with others who are equally threatened by it
goes without saying; that Muslims have the inspiration and encourage-
ment to do so from the basis of the Qur'an has, I hope, been proven in
the preceding pages.

‘The heurism inherent in the kind of theology done on these pages is
unavoidable. Anyone who engages in the contemporary discipline of
hermeneutics knows that there are no guarantees of being theologically
absolutely correct. I do, however, know that those who claim to have

259

Qur'an. Liberation & Pluralism

such guarantees have not done anything to address the causes of starva-
tion, exploitation and racial strife in our land. Indeed, more often than
not, they have been a part of the problem. I understand and acknowledge
that some of the issues raised in this book have opened doors without any
indication as to where they may be leading. This is but reflective of my
‘own ignorance.

Where does one draw the line in one’s endeavours to rethink tradition,
theological categories and the meaning of the Qur’an? While post-moder-
nity does not acknowledge boundaries, the Qur'an does; it speaks about
the limits of God that ought not to be transgressed, or even approached
(2:187, 229, 230). Where do notions of equality and justice stop, if they do
stop anywhere? Women leading the congregational prayers? A Hindu
priest conducting a marriage ceremony in a mosque? In fact, one may go
further and ask “Why have any kind of marriages, at all?’ Isn't that too
defined a relationship, too confined a union for post-modemity? How do
the religious rituals of Islam relate to a theology of pluralism?

Pluralism itself is not without ideology, but is intrinsically related to a
discourse founded and nurtured in critical scholarship which, in tum, fiunc-
tions as an extension of areligious ~ even anti-religious ~ Western scholarship.
‘This scholarship is not physically limited to the West, but is an extension of
an entire cultural system which is not without hegemonic interests over the
so-called under-developed world. Is a commitment to pluralism, even if for
the downtrodden, not paradoxically also buying into neo-colonialism?

Pluralism goes beyond tolerating differences and focuses on valuing
them and being enriched by it. Does this include shirk in its classical
forms, such as ancestor veneration in African Traditional Religions?
What does Hinduism and its multiple gods have to teach Muslims? How
different is post-modemity, with its absence of boundaries, overlapping
gods, and million ideas, from shirk?

Perhaps it is instructive co return to an argument of Francis
Schussler-Fiorenza, invoked in chapter 2 in my critique of Arkoun:

To take into account the historical, cultural and political conditions
about the demise of biblical authority is to view the scriptures histor-
ically but to view unhistorically both ourselves and our views on
scriptures. Descriptions about the demise of biblical authority are as
much autobiographical statements as they are objective descriptions.
(1990, p. 15)

‘The hermeneutic of suspicion that we apply to conservative interpreta-
tions of the qur‘anic text also applies to us; we require as much rethinking

260

Conclusion

and scrutiny as the theological categories of exclusion and inclusion.

‘These are but some of the many issues that we know little about and
need to address. It is not going to be easy. What we do know is that our
world has become small and the dangers threatening it, multifarious,
‘There is no conspiracy directed specifically against Islam; there are fright-
ening mechanisms available to ensure the destruction of humankind.
Humankind, especially the marginalized and oppressed, need each other
to confront these dangers and the challenges of liberation, Let us hope
that, because of, and not despite, our different creeds and worldviews, we
are going to walk this road side by side, Let us hope that we will be able
to sort out some of the theological issues whilst we walk the road. If not,
then at least we will get another opportunity after we have ensured our
survival and that of our home, the earth.

In the midst of all of this praise of tentativeness and heurism there is.
a certainty that I embrace. The struggle for justice, gender equality and
the re-interpretation of Islam so that it legitimates and inspires a compre-
hensive embrace of human dignity is one to which I am deeply commit-
ted, My own humanity is intrinsically wedded to this struggle in its various
forms. While the struggle for gender equality is about justice and human
rights for women, it cannot be regarded as a women’s struggle any more
than the battle against anti-Semitism is a Jewish struggle, or that of non-
racialism a struggle belonging to Blacks, or that of religious pluralism one
belonging to Western academics. All of us, whether in our offices, bed-
rooms, kitchens, mosques or boardrooms participate in the shaping of the

cultural and religious images and assumptions that oppress or liberate the
Other, and thus ourselves.

261

APPENDIX ONE

POLLSMOOR MAXIMUM PRISO!
P/B X 4, TOKAI, 7966
4385

1D220/82:NELSON MANDELA

Dear Sheikh Gabier,
‘As a member of the Methodist Church of South Africa I was baptised and brought up
1 a Christian, educated in Christian schools and, at an early age, I developed a strong
attachment ro the Christian faith.

During my long term of imprisonment I and my fellow prisoners received tremen-
ddous support and encouragement from the Christian Churches, The new trend that the
Church, as opposed to imdiw the isolated actions of

vidual clergymen, should be in

the forefront of the struggle for self expression and yustice, and the elevation of Blacks

(ie. Africans, Coloureds and Indians) to positions of authority in the Church have, in
terms of our unique situation, tumed Christianity into a militant doctrine, and the
institution itself into a powerful force and natural ally of all chose who are involved in
that struggle, These developments have made the Church more aware of the evils of
lack of opportunity, poverty and malnutrition and as e result, more acceptable to the
mastes of our people

Until I was 23 years of age I lived, lke most of us in

those days, in a homogeneous
though I knew vaguely of the existence of other religions, I never
even seriously thought about them. Then in the early forties I found myself working
discovered that these religions
in some cases, even older than Christianin

social environment.

closely with members of other popu

‘were as great as and,

wath equally magnifi-

cent achievements in the
like Maulvi Cachalia, Nana Sita and a host of others were fine and forceful personalities
‘as eminent for virtue as any Christian. I must add thar it was Maulvi Cashalia who first
outlined to me the basic tenets of Islam and the history and achievements of the
University of Deoband.

Later I became an admirer of Dr Abdurahman, the far-sighted pioneer who raised
the question of Black unity with unrivall

jekd of human rights, education and welfare, I found that men

wd dedication as far back as the twenties, 1

met Imam Haroun but heard many good tings about him. Imam Bussier visited
us regularly on Robben Island and, at the time of my transfer to this place, his services
were enjoying ever-growing support. Hav

listened to him there, I consider it regret
table that there should be no Moslem priest visiting us in this prison. ‘The support we
{G0 ws prisoners from the Christian Churches was not greater than the support and
encouragement we were given by our Moslem and Hindu ©

1 should have indicated that my 1962 Affican Tour opened my eyes even wider
and I gained a deeper insight
nent. Although T have no authentic statistics on the matter, my three months tour of
the Arab States in North Africa from Egypt to Morncco, and my visits to Mali, Guinen
and Nigeria gave me the impression chat on this continent there were more Moslems

the principles and influence of Islam on our conti-

262

z Appendix One

‘than Christians.

‘Bur I must rerum to the domestic scene and inform you that on the Island I liter-
ally harassed the Commanding Officer for permission to visit Sheikh Msunura’s kra-
mat. Permission was granted only in 1977. That is the day which I will not easily for-
get. Symbols and monuments, especially those which represent great movements or
national heroes, can move one beyond words. My fellow prisoners and I spent more
than an hour in the shrine and we came out feeling proud and happy that we were able
{0 pay Our respects to so great a Highter as Sheikh Mautura

Unforrunately, there was nobody among us who was well-versed in Islam to
explain to us the significance of the articles, signs and symbols inside and outside the
kramat. Our knowledge would have been considerably enriched.

In conclusion, { want to point out that there are two evils which have confronted
society right down the centuries. ‘These are wars, on the ane hand, and luck of oppor-
tunity and disparities in wealth, on the other. Those whose primary concern is the
elimination of these evils tend to judge all eas, spiritual and otherwise, and all social
institutions on the extent to which they contribute towards the removal of these evils,
In my current situation, I cannot express myself fully and frankly, except to let you
know that I consider the Moslem Judicial Council to be fully committed to the elimina-
tion of these evils. This is the reason why the MJC is an inspiration to us all, Fondest
regards to you, Sheik Najar and to all the members of the MJC.

‘Yours sincerely

NR Mandela

APPENDIX TWO

In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, The Dispenser of Grace

Muslim Forum Declaration on the
April Elections

‘The following declaration was drawn up by the Muslim Forum on Elections,
and followed months of consultation nationally on the issue of a Muslim
response to the April General Elections.

‘The Forum was formed in the middle of last year and brought together about
thirty Muslim organisations to discuss the elections, The process of consulta-
tion finally ended in an agreement on a strategic orientation for the forum,
and this declaration. Organisations that have supported the process and
endorse this declaration include: Muslim Youth Movement of South

263

Qur'an, Liberation & Pluralism

Africa, Call of Islam, Muslim Students Association, Islamic Council
of South Africa, Islamic Medical Association, Central Islamic Trust,
various Mosque jamaats, Muslim Judicial Council, Muslim Front
(Western Cape), Natal Regional Elections Coordinating Committee,
Soweto Muslim Association, Kagiso Muslim Trust, Islamic
Foundation of the North, South African National Zakah Fund

Preamble

For the first time in South Africa we are to have real and meaningful elec-
tions, Historically our people have suffered in various ways under a racist-
capitalist apartheid state. Who can forget how we were removed from our
homes and dumped in inferior areas at the whim of the state; how our people
had to carry passes all the time; how our mosques were desecrated by soldiers;
how our children were regarded as illegitimate because our country was gov-
‘emed as a “Christian National” state and our marriages were not recognised.

We believe that an historic opportunity exists in the 27 April 1994 national
elections for a constituent assembly to deliver unto our land and its people a
just political, economic, social and religious dispensation, These elections are
the first step towards achieving democracy in our society

It affords all South Africans an opportunity to free ourselves from oppression
and institutionalised discrimination on the basis of race, ethnic or gender
identity,

It holds out the possibility for national reconciliation, peace and social devel-
opment, rather than continuing social conflict and the horrific prospect of #
devastating civil war.

Our Call to South Africans

We call on all South Africans, and Muslims in particular, to vote and to par-
ticipate fully in the forthcoming elections,

Prepare yourself for the electaral process by acquiring a valid identity docu-
ment and by developing a proper understanding of the voting procedure.
Assist other people in this process

When voting choose wisely and according to your conscience, and be mindful
of the hopes and aspirations of the majority of the poor and oppressed in our
country, Also remember the history of those who have perpetrated gross
injustices against our people. Support those who have a
justice and the upliftment of the

ory of struggle for

ses of our people

Ensure that the party you vote for has a history of commitment to and sup-

ports the following Islamic principles

+ The right to religious freedom and association

* Upholding the dignity of all human beings, irrespective of race,
gender, tribe, ete.

Appendix Two

+ Working for a clean, transparent administration with a code of
conduct for people in authority

+ Aspirit of shura (consultation) with all the people of our country

+ Subjection to muhasabah (accountability) to all the people

+ Redressing land and economic imbalances, and striving for a
just order

* Striving to make available to all people educational, health and
social security opportunities equitably

* Protection of the earth and environment as an amanah (trust) to
humanity.

Our Call to Political Leaders

We call on the leaders and members of all liberation movements and political
parties to give peace a chance and to work for the establishment of justice.
‘Commit yourselves fully to the transitionary process, and accept the outcome
of the April 27 elections.

Defend the right to free association. Stamp out political intolerance, war talk
and violence, and encourage a culture of tolerance and the dignity of all
human beings.

Allow the electoral process to unfold smoothly and peacefully, and ensure
that there is free political activity in all areas.

The Future
Decades of apartheid rule has left many sears on our lund. All around us
there is unemployment, poverty, inequality, broken families, crime and

human misery.

A future democracy must mean more than just a vote every now and then, It
must allow us to play a meaningful role in the day-to-day decision-making in
our society; it must lead to an improvement in the quality of life for all South
Africans - not only the rich and powerful. It must create conditions for
human and spiritual development.

It must uphold basic human rights and respect the varied religious codes and
customs of all South Africans

We therefore commit ourselves to contributing to the spiritual rebuilding and
well-being of all South Africans.

Issued by the Muslim Forum on Elections, PO Box 42608,
Fordsburg, 2033. (011)839-1771

265

APPENDIX THREE

DECLARATION ON RELIGIOUS RIGHTS AND RESPONSIBILITIES
WE WHO SUBSCRIBE TO THIS DECLARATION

4) understand, for the purpose of this declaration, 9 religious community to mean a
group of people who follow a particular system of belief, morality and worship, either
in recognition of a divine being, or in the pursuit of spiritual development, or in the
expression of a sense of belonging through social custom and ntual;

'b) recognise that the people of our continent, Affica, belong to diverse religious com-
‘munities;

¢) regret that in South Affics religion has sometimes been used to justify injustice, sow
conflict and contribute to the oppression, exploitation and suffering of people;

) acknowledge the courageous role played by many members of religious communities

in upholding human dignity, justice and peace in the face of repression and division,

€) are convinced that our religious communities can play a role in redressing past injus-
tices and the construction ofa just society.

THEREFORE
affirm the rightful and lawful existence of diverse religious communities and call
upon the state to recognise them and guarantee their a

18) call upon religious communities to promote spiritual and moral values, reconcilin-
tion and reconstruction, in accordance with thelr own teachings;

AND AFFIRM THAT

1 PEOPLE SHALL ENJOY FREEDOM OF CONSCIEN'
4.1 All persons shall be free to have and give expression to a system of values oF rel

pious beliefs and practices of their choice, and no-one shall be coerced into accepting
‘or changing hivher religious affiiation.

1.2 Everyone should respect and practise tolerance towards other people whatever their
religious beliefs, provided that che expression of religion shall not violate the legal rights
of others.

2 RELIGIOUS COMMUNITIES SHALL BE EQUAL BEFORE THE LAW
2.1 The state shall uphold the equality of all religious communities before the law, not
identifying with or favouring any, but shall consult and cooperate with religious com-

munities in matters of snutual co

2.2 Religious communities, singly

nly or collectively, shall have the right to address

that state and enter into dialogue on matters important to them,
2.3 The state shall uphold the professional confidentiality 0
leadership function in religious co

people who exercise a
munities concerning any information acquired in

the course of their religious d

2.4 There shall be no discrimination on the basis of religious affiliation in employment

266

Appendix Three

Dractices, except where religious affiliation is an essential job qualification.

3 RELIGIOUS COMMUNITIES HAVE MORAL RESPONSIBILITIES TO
SOCIETY

Religious communities should, in accordance with their particular teachings,

3.1 educate their communities in spirirual and moral values and promote these in society;
3.2 direct energies, talents and resources towards the service of their fellow human
beings;

3.3 direct their land resources to the benefit of the landless;

3.4 remain self-critical at all times and strive to eliminate discrimination based on gen-
der, race, language or social status in their own structures and among their members;
3.5 critically evaluate all social, economic and political structures and their activities;
3.6 ensure that people who exercise a leadership function in religious communities fol-
low the dictates of their conscience to avoid conspiring or colluding to violate the pub-
lic good or the legal rights of others.

4 PEOPLE HAVE THE RIGHT TO RELIGIOUS EDUCATION

4.1 Parents, guardians and religious communities have the primary responsibility for
the faith development of their children, and parental consent is required in all matters
pertaining to their religious instruction and worship in schools

4.2 The decision about whether o¢ not 10 offer religious education in state schools shall
bbe made by each loca! schoo! community,

4.3 Schools that offer religious education may choose single-faith instruction in each of
the religions represented in the school, or in the study of world religions, or both,

44 In the case of a single-faith curriculum, school communities should ensure that
suitably qualified persons from rehgious communities give religious instruction to their
‘own adherents.

4.5 Religious communities shall be entitled to establish and maintain their own educa-
tonal institutions at all levels.

4.6 Such institutions shall have the right to financial support by the state, provided that
they comply with the academic norms laid down by the educational authorities.

$ PEOPLE IN STATE INSTITUTIONS SHALL ENJOY RELIGIOUS RIGHTS:
5.1 Members of the security forces, prisoners, as well as patients and re
insticutions, shall have the right ro observe the requirements of their religions.

5.2 Such persons shall have access to spiritual care from their own religious communi
ties.

6 RELIGIONS HAVE THE RIGHT TO PROPAGATE THEIR TEACHINGS
6.1 ‘The propagation of religious teachings should be done with respect for people of
other religious communities, without denigrating them or violating theit legal rights.

6.2 Such propagation should not take unfair advantage of anyone on the basis of age,
physical and mental weakness, economic need or any other vulnerability.

7 RELIGIOUS COMMUNITIES SHALL HAVE ACCESS TO THE PUBLIC

MEDIA
7.1 Every religious community shall have reasonable access to the publicly-owned

267

Qur* Liberation & Pluralism

‘communications media and the right ro establish its own.
7.2 To ensure such reasonable access and to avoid misunderstanding and intolerance,
the broad religious spectrum of society should be represented on all boards responsible
for religious media.

8 THE STATE SHALL RECOGNISE SYSTEMS OF FAMILY
AND CUSTOMARY LAW

8.1 The state shall grant legal status to systems of family and customary law of religious
communities with regard to marriage and its dissolunon, the support of dependents
and succession.
8.2 The state shall recognise persons from al! religous communities as marriage offl-

cers
{8.3 Marriage and dissolutions contracted under family or customary law should be reg-
intered with the appropnate civil authorities.

8.4 People whose family or customary law has been granted legal status may also have
legal recourse to the civil authorities on issues of family law

85 In the case of the dissolution of a marriage, recourse may be sought in civil law

afer the avenues of family or customary law have been reasonably uulited,

9 THE HOLY DAYS OF RELIGIOUS COMMUNITIES
SHALL BE RESPECTED

9.1 Authorities and employers shall make reasonable allowances for people from all
religious communities to observe their religous holidays and days of times of worship,

10 RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS MAY OWN PROPERTY AND BE
EXEMPT FROM TAXES

10.1 Local authorities shall set sside adequate land for religious purposes, such as wor
ship, burial and cremauon and sball respe:
10.2 Such land shall be allocated to religious communities in terms of the needs of the
Jocal population,

10.3 Assets, religious objects of symbols imported, and funds received by religious

he religsous antegnty of these sites

communities for worship, educ

A and works of mercy shall be exempt from taxation,
tand donations oF bequests for the above purposes shall be tax-deductible.

AFFIRMATION
We, the signatories to this declaration,

* convinced that there is an urgent need for all religious communities and the state
to accept and implement the principles in this declaration;

* trusting that this will contribute to better relations between the state and religious
communities und between religious communities themselves;
* recognisin

Rights;

these principles will function within the framework of a Bill of

hereby comm

‘ourselves to implement this declaration and appeal to all religious com-
munities to promote

ese principles everywhere

268

Appendix Three

A National Inter-Faith Conference, held in Pretoria on 22-24 Novemiber 1992 under
the auspices of WCRP-SA, adopted this declaration on Religious Rights and
Responsibilities. It is the result of two years of discussion and consultation among the

religious groups, and is hereby presented to all religious co
for endorsement.

munities and individuals

IF YOU ACCEPT THE DECLARATION, PLEASE RETURN THE
ATTACHED POSTCARD. IF YOU ARE UNABLE TO ENDORSE IT,
PLEASE RESPOND BY EXPLAINING TO US THE REASONS WHY YOU
DISAGREE.

‘On the basis of the Declaration, the Natior
following clause on religious freedom to be

th Confer

also proposed the
.cluded in a future Bill of Human Rights
for South Africa This clause, together with the Declaration, will be presented to the

wnters of a new South African constitut

PROPOSED CLAUSE FOR THE BILL OF HUMAN RIGHTS
1. All persons ure entitled:

1.1 to freedom of conscience,

1.2 to profess, practice, and propagate any religion or no religion,

1.3 to change their religious allegiance;

2. Every religious community and/or member thereof shall enjoy the right:

1 to establish, maintain and manage religious institutions;
2.2 10 have their particular system

3 to criticise and challenge all social and political structures and policies in terms

of the teachings of their religion,

GLOSSARY

‘adl
Maintaining a balance, justice

ahl al-hitab
People of the Book, usually
employed for Jews and Christians

Ansar
Literally, ‘helpers’, used for the
host community in Medina who
welcomed Muhammad and the
exiles from Mecca

Ash‘arite
Follower of schoo! of thought in
‘Muslim theology which held that
the Qur'an is uncreated. They
‘opposed rationalism and were
supportive of notions of predeter
mination

ayah (pl. ayat)
Literally, ‘sign’, used to denote a
qur’anic verse

batit
False, falsehood

dar al-harb
“The abode of war’, a country in
which the lives of Muslims are
threatened, or which is at war with
Muslims
Muslim constitutional lawyers, @
place which is not dar

For many traditional

Islam

dar al-Islam

A country where the laws of Islam
tare applied or a Muslim govern-
‘ment rules

dhimmi (pl. ahl al-dhimma)
One of the People of the Book, liv
ing in a Muslim state, under its
protection

dhurriyyah

Literally, ‘following’, ‘offspring’

din (pl. adyan)
Faith, religion, reckoning

Sigh
Literally, ‘intelligence’, ‘know!-
edge’. Term given to
jurisprudence

fitnah
Disorder, usually insurrection or
rebellion

fitrah
Natural

functionalism
The idea that the value of a text is
related to the role and function
which it plays in the life und activi-
bes of the reader

hadith
Tradition, religious or profane,

conveying a saying or action of
Muhammad

hai
The pilgrimage to Mecca
halal
Permissible for consumption
halgah (pl. halagat)
Literally, ‘circle’, a study group
hijrah
Muhammad's departure to
Medina, the starting point of the
Muslim calendar
‘Id al-Fitr
The Festiv

of Charity, celebrat-
nd of Ramadan, the

‘incapacitation’, usually
refers to the inimitability of the

Qur'an

Glossary

‘ijtihad
Creative intellectual effort, apply-
ing principles of Islamic jurispru-
dence to new problems

mam
Literally, ‘leader’. In Sunni Islam,
the prayer leader
iman
Faith, belief
injil
Revelations to Jesus
‘issah
Honour, glory, strength
Jahiliyyah
A state of ignorance or arrogance,
usually denoting pre-Islamic Arab
society
Jinsiyy
Ethno-cultural
‘hafir (pl. hafirun, buffer)
Literally, ‘ingrate’, usually
liever*

unbe-

alam
Literally, ‘speech. Scholastic
theology

heufr

iterally
‘unbelie?

lawh al-mahfuz
Literally, ‘the protected tablet’,
believed to be the sacred realm
where the Qur'an was located
before its earthly manifestation as
revealed scripture

ingratitude’, usually

mihnah
Literally, ‘trial’, ‘The Mu'tazillite
inquisition and persecution,
extending from 833, of those
refusing to acknowledge the creat-
edness of the Qur'an

rar
Path, method
mujahid
Someone engaged in jihad
rmu'min (pl. mus'minun)
A person of faith, conviction, usu-
ally ‘believer’
munafiq (pl. munafiqun)
Hypocrite
mushrik (pl. mushrikun)
Associationist, believer in a deity
other than God
mustad’ afun fi'l ard

‘Oppressed of the earth’, margin-
alized and exploited

mustokbirun
Literally, ‘the arrogant ones!

Mu'tazilite
Follower of school of thought in
Islamic theology which insisted on
the createdness of the Qur'an.
They upheld rationalism as a
source of knowledge and rejected
predetermination as inconsistent
with divine justice
People as a sociological entity

naskh
Abrogation

nifaq
Hypocrisy

ist
Equity

sabab al-nuzul (pl. asbab al-nusul)
Occasion of revelation, event con-
nected 1 the revelation, of @ par-
ticular qur’anic text

sahabah
The Companions of Muhammad

27)

Qurvan

salah
The five daily prayers at pre-
scribed times, which are obligatory

for Muslims

shari‘ah
Literally, ‘path’, the religious law
of Islam

shirk
Associating others with God

sunnah
The example of Muhammad,
prophetic precedent

tadvij
Gradualism, progressive rev

tafsir
Interpretation, exegesis of th
Qur'an

tagqwa

Awareness of account
God, piety

tawhid

The absolute onenes "

tawrat

The revelat Mo

ta’ wil

Interpretation, elubg

Liberation

& Pluralism

‘ulama’ (sing. ‘alirn)
Literally, ‘scholars’, used for tradi-
tional scholars in Islam and loosely
for those who perform religious
duties

‘ulum al-qur’an
Traditional qur'anie studies

ummah

Community
‘urf
Custom, local usage

usul al-figh

Principles and bases of Islamic

usul al-tafsir
Principles of

xcgesis

wali (pl. awtiya*)

Friend, comrade, ally, guardian
wilayah
Friendship, comradeship, alliance,

sianship

wanting to 2.5% of wealth

sumulated

fet 3 year and given

he needy

BIBLIOGRAPHY

‘Abd al-Bagi, Muhammad Fuad. 1945.
Al Mu‘jam al-Mofahras. Cairo: Dar
al-Kutub,

"Abd a-Ra’uf, Muhammad. 1967. Some
Notes on the Qur'anic Use of the
Terms hilam and Iman. The Must
World 57 (2) pp. 94-102.

Al-Abidin, Zain. 1986. Introduction,
Journal Institute of Muslim Minority
“Affairs 7 (2) pp. 3-6,

Abu Zaid, Nasr Hamid, 1993. Mafhum
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INDEX

‘Abd al-Ra’uf, 124, 130, 145 2.8
"Abduh, Muhammad, 141

‘Abraham, 142, 159, 166

‘Abu Darr, 113.9. 13

‘Abu Hanifih, 120

‘Abu Hayan, 80 n. 11

‘Abu Jabl, 143

‘Abu Zaid, Nasr Hamid, 18 0. 9, 65

‘sccommodationisim, x-xi, 7-8, 9, 12

‘adi wa git, 16, B3, 87, 103-6

African Christian Democratic Party,
232

African Muslim Party (AMP), 219, 220,
228, 232

African National Congress (ANC), 7, 2
27, 29, 31, 32, 35, 46.0. 16, 48 n. 28, 93,
108, 206 n. 25, 207, 208, 209, 210, 211,
212, 2, 223, 234, 237,
240, 243, 244, 253m. 17,252 0
18: Freedom Chartet, 96; Umkhonto we
Sawe, 207, 222; Youth League, 46 0. 16

Aftican People’s Organization (APO), 27,
28, 30, 43,46. 11, 460,19

Afrikaner National Bood (ANB), 28

‘ahlal-kitab, 17, 22

Ahmad, Barakst, 176.7, 1770. 11

‘Ahmad, Hawa, 28

"Rinha, 100

Akhalwaya, Yusuf, 222-5

‘Ali ibe Abi Talib, 49, 50, 78.0. 1, 79m. 5

“Ali, Youuf, 86

Aly, Oaair, 26, 46 0. 13

‘Amra, Muhammad, 91

‘apartheid, xi, 2, 189-90, 191, 192,
229, 242: “W-day” Act, 315 beginnings of
24; conservative rel
39-41, 42, 77, 189,
215, 218-19, 249, 250,
259; divisions within population, 37, 102,
188, 193; end of, 207-12, 216, 222,
2234; forced removals, 2, 30, 189-00;
Group Areas Act, 2, 3, 31, 46.9, 1
189-90; Muslim community and, 21)
New Deal, 34-6, 47 0, 23, 179, 200;
‘opposition to, 6, 8-9, 10, 16, 17, 20,
30-1, 32-9, 40, 41, 43-4, 47 0. 22, 77,
B4, 90, 92-3, 95-6, 105, 107, 123, 179,
180, 206 n. 25; oppression af women, vit,
post-apartheid South Africa, 225-34,
236-9; religious justifications for, 6, 39,
43, 77, 180, 189, 193, 199, 204 a. 15;
Sabotage Act, 31; Separate Representation

‘of Voters Act Validation and Amended
Bill, 47 n. 17; see ao liberation struggle
‘Arkoun, Mohammed, 16, 63-4, 68-73, 78,
80 n. 13, 80m. 14, 80m. 16, 80m. 17, 80
1. 20, 260

Asad, Muhammad, 136, 137, 186

‘Askari, Hassan, 169, 175, 178 n, 19

Association of Muslim Attorneys and
Lawyers, 242

Ayoub, 1440.1

Azad, Abu'l Kalam, 177 2.9

Azanian People's Organization (Azapo), 48
1, 28, 209, 210, 213

Ab-Badowi, Fawai, 144.0. 1

Baghdadi, Shihab al-Din Mahmud, 80 n. 11

Bahira, 176.0. 5

Al-Baidawi, Nasr al-Din Abu Sa'id "Abd.
Allah iba "Umar, 178 n. 15, 183, 204.0, 0

Balah, Mawiana, 4

At-Baladbusi, 177 2. 9

Basert-Sani, Julius, 177 0. 8

Al-Basri, Hassan, 120, 170
Bell, Richard, 176 n
Bickford-Smith, V..45 0. 9
Biko, Steve, 32

Ihde haf, 85, 112 0. 2

Binder, Leonard, 72

Rinnuri, Mowlana Yusuf, 64

Bisck Consciousness (BC), 32-3, 35, 42, 48
1. 28; yo alte Azapo

Boesak, Allan, 35, 37, 30

Boff, Clodovis and Leonardo, 14, 198, 201

Bosch, Sormya, 243

Botha, P-W., 6

Braaten, Cari, $1

Bradlow, M. Adil, 45 n. 6, 45 n. 9,479.25

Al-Bubhari, Muhammad bin Isma'il, 120,
122, 2030.4

Bultmana, Rudolf, 31

Burns, Abdol, 24, 25,26

Buthelesi, Gatsha, 7, 204 n. 15, 218, 219,
2530.17

Call of Islam (Call), 6, 31, 34, 35-6, 38 41,
42, 43, 47 9. 19,47 9. 24, 47 n, 25, 48 0.

, BA, 88, 89, 02, 93, 105-6, 107, 108,

204 n.10, 205 n. 24, 208,

213, 216, 217, 218, 220, 223,

, 225, 280, 233, 234, 235-6, 240-1,

242, 243, 244, 248, 249-50, 252 2. 7,
2p. §, 252.0. 9,253 n. 19

Campaign Against Religious Intolerance,

Cantwell-Smith, Wilfred, 125, 128, 130,

131, 1450.7, 1450.8

Qurvan. Liber

‘Cape British Indian Congress, 46 n. 1

Cape Islamic Federation (CIF), 31, 250

Cape Malay Association (CMA), 27-8, 46
aS

Cape Muslim Youth Movemenst (CMYM),
30, 31, 43

Cassier, Achimat,

Charl, Abdetmaji

Chikane, Frank, 35

(Christ for AU Nations, 8, 189

Christian Inssinute, 4, 6

Christianity, xi, 2-3, 5, 8, 18 0. 2, 171, 176
wa, 1: Anglican Church, 8; Charismatic
Church, 7; Dutch Reformed Church
(DRC), 5, 25, 10, 45 0. 5, 48 a 29, 189,
210, 225; Methodist Church, 7; opps!
tion to apartheid, 6, 37, 38; Pentecostal
‘Church, 7; support for apartheid, 43; and
‘Trinity, 153, 177 ». 8; Zionist Christian
Church, 7

(Christians for Peace, 8

(Christian Voice, 232

Claremont Muslim Youth Association
(CMYA), 30, 31, 43

Coloured Affairs Department (CAD), 29,
37,46, 17

Coloured People’s Asociation (CPA), 26-

‘Congress of South African Trade Unions
(Cosaru), 211, 212

Congress of Traditional
(Contealesa), 243

Convention for a Democratic South Africa
(Codena), 210-11

Cengg, Kenneth, 176 0. 7

Da Costa, ¥,, 44. 1,45 0.7

Dangor, Sulaiman, 44 n. 1,45 0.9

Davids, Achmar, 44 0. 1, 46. 15

Dean, Decrick, 5

Deedat, Ahmad, 204 9. 15, 218-19, 252.0, 6

Dehlawi, Shab Wali Alish, 55, 58, 59

De Klerk, F, W., 207, 209, 210, 281,

Derrida, Jacques, 68

Dhifly, Sitty, 247

stn, 55, 126-30, 131, 132-3, 145m. 6, 145,
1. &, 156, 166-7, 172, 1780. 17, 181, 188

Effendi, Achat, 26, 46.0, 12,460. 14

Engineer, Asghat Ali, 14, 144.0. 1

Esack, Mawlana Farid, 36, 37
231, 236, 245

Al-Farsi, Salman, 177.13

Al-Farugi, sma’, 58, 144 n,

finah, 11, 36, 39, 40, 44, 104
16,254

Forum of Muslim Thenlogians, 247

Foucault, Mich

fundamentalism, si
Talurnic, x4, 33, 39, 40.
105, 113 5. 12 1

13,
"7

6, 251.04
nl

Leaders

105, 113

jon & Pluratism

Gabier, Abdul Gamiet, 36
‘Gabriels, Ebrahim, 246
Garniet, Arshad, 27, 46.0. 15
Al-Ghazaali, Abu Harnid, 112 0. 6
Ginwala, Frene, 223
Goldfield, ¥.,79 2.9
Gool, Goslar, 28
Gool, Zainunnia, 28
Gunierrez, Gustavo, 14, 72, 202
Haddad, Yvonne, 128-9
asdch, 12, 15, 56, 120, 122,
Hamilton, Ernest, 178 a,
Hanafi, Hassan, 14, 144 0. 1
Al-Haggi, Isms‘, 80.0. 11
Haron, Abdullah, 30, 31
Hegel, Friedrich, 85
hermeneutics, xi, 1, 9-10, 12, 13, 14,
V6-17, 30-1, 61, 82-111, 137, 204 m, 1,
254, 256; bias within, 16, 70; contempo-
63-73, 75; contest of, 61-2, 74,
cemexpence of, 16; ‘hermeneutic clr-
11; hermeneutic of liberation, 20, 36,
50, 77-8, 82-3, 83-5, 86, 89, 94, 110,
141, 116, 179-80, 196, 203, 254-5, 257,
258-0; importance of language, 10, 69,
73, 76, 97; interpreter, 49-$0, 75, 80, n,
21, 82, B6-7, 49-90, 91, 93, 94, 102-3,
110, 111, 235) intuition scholarship,
74-5, 78; methodology, 14-15, 50, 5)
65; non-clerics and, 16; as philosophical
sid to understanding, 51, 93, 179 recep:
hermeneutics, 51-2, 63, 75; and the
self, 75; South Afnican quranic hermenev
tic, 44, 50, 68, 73, 77, 83-5, 89, 91-2,
101-3, 190, 221-2; and struggle fo justice,
Tie2, 15%, 187) and traditional qur'anie
sctoarship, 61-3, 73, 743 see also in, iman,
na, geo, taf, Lawl
og J.B, M., 27-8, 46.0. 15
Muhammad Taghud Din, 186
Hinduism, 5, 8, 260
Hudalesione, Trevor, 38
Hulaji, Farieab, 243
vn ‘Abbas, “Abd Allah, 162, 163, 196, 203
8. 3,204 8. &, 204m. 12, 204.0, 14
Ta Abi Balta'ah, 204 0,
Toa “Attn, “Uthmnan, 78 a, 1
Ton ‘Arabi, Mubyi al-Din, 74, 116, 119,
121-2, 127, 136, 140, 141, 142
on Hanbal, Ahmad, 809, 12, 1121
Ton Jarrah, Abu “Ubaydah, 195 9.12
Ton Jud'an, “Abd Allah, 193, 194
ibn Malik, Anas, 100, 251 n. 3
yn Mansur, Muhammad iba Mukasram
53,135
Ths Maslamah, Muhammad, 205 n_ 18
Ths May'ud, ‘Abd Allah, 79 n. 3, 145m. 11
Ton Qays, Shish, 192, 193

44, 253 0. 18

le’

284

Index

hn Rabi'ab, ‘Utbah, 205m. 17

‘Ton Salam, "Abd Allah, 147, 178 0. 16

bn Samir, “Ubadah, 182

Ton Taymiyyah, Tagiyy al-Din, 176 0. 7

Thm Ubay, ‘Abd Allah, 182

man, 13, 16, 114, 115, 116, 117-25, 130,
136, 144, 144 n. 2, 164, 205 n. 19, 257:
‘mox'min (pl. meu mina), 15, 114, 117, 120,
121, 124, 136, 141, 148, 165, 180, 181,
183, 184, 185-6, 188, 189, 194, 201,
202, 203 n. 3

injustice, 1, 5, 9-10, 13, 17, 67-8, 83, 97,
104, 109, 143, 200, 254, 258

Inkatha Freedom Parry (IFP), 210, 211,
212, 218-19, 253 n. 17

Inscieute of Contextuat Theology (ICT), 35

Interfaith solidarity, 6, 8-9, 16, 17, 25-6,
27, 32, 37-9, 40-1, 42, 48m. 28, 49, 86,
110, 115, 153, 179-80, 189, 190-3, 104,
200, 203, 204 n. 10, 232, 253 n. 19, 254;
see alo wilayah

International Islamic Propagation Centre,
180, 208 n. 15

Aldisfahani, Abu Muslim, 59, 208.13

islam, 13, 16, 114, 115, 116, 126-34, 135,
136, 138, 139, 144; 144.0. 1, 1450. 5,
145 1. B, 148, 174, 257

Islamic Council of South Africa, 242

Islamic Parry (IP), 219, 223

Islamic Propagation Centre (IPC), 8, 204 n
15, 218-19

Islamic Unity Convention, 226

Islamism, Islamists, 3, 11, 33, 63-5, 92-3,
401, 107, 187, 253 0. 19: exctusivisen, 33,
30, 40-1} progrenive Islamism, xi, 9, 10,
11, 18 1, 6, 39, 49, 60-1, 62, 77, 82, 88,
101, 105, 108, 109, 111, 179-80, 193,
198, 199, 200, 201, 203, 206 n. 26, 219,
234-6, 237, 240-1, 243, 248-51, 258-61,
vee alo fandamentalisen

tautsu, Toshihiko, 135-6, 138, 143, 145 0. 8

Juck, Adam, 215

Jacobs, 'Adii, 47 0. 24

Jama’at-Llsiami, 33

‘Al-Jawziyyah, Ton Qayyin, 58, 104

Jeenah, Na'eem, 217

Jesur, 70 40 m. 16, 100, 162, 166, 169

Jews for Justice, 34

had, 83, 87, 106-10, 111, 176. 2

Ab-ibad, 83, 108

Judaisen, 8, 171

justice, 2, 4, 6, 8, 9, 11, 13, 29, 33, 39, 67,
72, 82, 86, 89, 97, 99, 101, 103-6, 107,

110, 115, 126, 134, 140, 143, 148, 155,
174-5, 179, 180, 187, 221, 236-7, 249,
253 n. 19, 256, 258, 261: we abo ‘ad! oe
ue

hafir (pl. Auffar, kafirum), 13, 15, 98, 116,

135, 136-8, 139-40, 143, 148, 149, 181,
182, 184, 185, 187-8, 191, 201, 204 a.
215, 216

Kairer, Paul, 14, 258
Koaze, Theo, 4,6
Keitzinger, Klippies, 252 n. 10
sufr, 12, 13, 16, 40, 144, 115, 116, 121,
130, 1364-44, 145 0. 10, 149, 156, 172,
195, 196-7, 198, 199, 205 n. 19, 257
Kunatiinger, David, 145 n. 8
liberationiam, xi-xil, 7, 12, 13, 17, 20, 41,
104, 179, 188, 198, 202, 203, 248-9,
250, 255
liberation struggle (South Affican), 4, 6, 8
9, M1, 14, 17, 4-9, 43-4, 46 0, 14, 47
1-5, 86, 89, 90, 95-6, 103, 106,
107, 108, 123, 179, 183, 191, 192, 194,
196, 199, 206 m. 26, 213, 221, 224, 228,
235, 240, 248, 258, 259
liberation theology, 8 11, 14, 17, 18 0. 6,
5, 72, 83, 85, 86, 109-10,
198, 202, 250, 254, 256: Black
Theology, 32, 35, 47 0.20; Contextual
Theology, 35; Islam and, 9, 17, 33, 38-6,
47 n. 21, 83-5, 104-5, 108, 110, 199
Louw, Lionel, 37
Lovw, Nazeem, 207
Ludbe, Gere, 48 9, 26
Madura, Shaikh, 7
Mahmud, Tabs, 79 0. #
Mailisul Ulama, 8, 216

‘Al-Ma'mun, Abu Abbas, 80 9. 12
Mandela, Nelson, 7,

31, 46 2, 16, 208-9,

23,
Manie, Staeniel, 47 n. 24
Al-Maturidi, 79'n. 10
Mawdudt, Abul-A’
Mazrul, All, 237
McAuliffe, M.,176 8. 1, 1760, 7
McDonough, Sheila, 145 n. 8
Meer, Fatima, 44 n. 1, 213
Merninsi, Fatima, 14
Merron, M. M.
swhna, 65, 80 n. 12
Mobuemed, sma,
Moharsmes, Nazim, 244
Moleketi-Fraser, Geraldine, 232
Moosa, Mawlata Ebrahim, 14, 84, 178 1.
17, 236, 242, 243, 244, 245, 255, 256,

334

259
Moses, 99, 100, 102, 118, 162, 166, 194-9,

200, 201,
Mu‘awiyah, 49, 78.0 1, 113.0. 13
Muhammad, xi, 12, 15, 55, 56, 59, 64-5,

70, 74, 79 n. 4, 80 n. 16, 99, 100-1, 118,

285

Qur'an. Libera

125, 126, 135, 137, 138, 139, 140, 143,
150, 151, 162, 165, 166, 172-4, 176 m. 2,
176 a. 4, 177 n. 9, 17 w. 13, 178m 14,
180, 181, 182, 183, 186, 187, 188,
191-2, 193-4, 195, 204 n. 4, 204 n. 7,
204 n. 12, 204 n. 13, 205 n. 17, 2050.
24, 251 n. 3, 257

Mujahidin-I-Khalg, 83, 91

munafiy (pl. munapigur), 148, 149, 153, 176
2, 184, 191, 203 a3, 204 0. 14

Al-Munbit, ‘Abd at Qadir, 251 a. 3

‘Murabitun, 214, 216, 251 0. 3

‘muslin, 15, 114, 115-16, 133, 134, 139,
144, 148, 196, 201, 202

‘Moslim, Hajiaj ibe, 120, 122, 203 n. 4

Muslion community in South Africa, 20-44,
46 n. 11, 77, 190, 199: accommodation
theology, 189, 199, 209; and armed serug-
le, 206 n. 25, 215; Cemetery Uprising,
24-5, 26, 27, 45 n. 9 collaborationism,
32, 37, 39, 40-1, 43, 44 n. 2, 123, 134,
179, 187; and death penalty, 230-3, 259;
and excivsivism, 37, 39, 40, 41, 214, 216,
230} growth of, 20, 21-3, 24; and liber
tion theology, 83-5, 199, 201; mass
action, 224-34, 250; Muslim identity, 30,
37, 200, 220; and negotiation proce
209-10, 213, 214, 224; opposition to dix
crimination, 21-2, 44, 83, 91-3, 105; and
Other, 21, 22, 25-6, 36, 37, 38, 39, 41-2,
43, 48 0. 28, 49, 111, 123, 138, 179-80,

2-13, 214, 220, 247, 250, 25% n. 19,
People Against Drugs and Gangsterism
(Pagad), 225, 226-9; political participa
tion, 24, 26-8, 29-34, 35-6, 37, 44, 460
12, 46 a. 13, 179, 212, 216-18, 219-22,
223, 241-2; position of women, 2
relationship with ruling class, 21, 23,
25-8, 40, 44; religious disputes, 23, 36-7,
38; religious freedom, 23, 190, 213, 239,
252 n. 12; secular law, clashes with,
44, 242, 249; sense
suppression of Islam, 22-3, 30, 31-2, 44,
45 1, 5; survival of, 20-24, 44

Muslim Forum on Elections, 217

Musi Judicial Counc (MJC), 7, 32, 43, 209,
232, 243, 244, 246, 247, 248, 250,253 0. 17

Muslim Personal Lave (MPL), 17, 213, 238,
241-6, 252 0, 7, 252 m. 14; and Bill of
Rights, 243, 244, 245; Muslim Personal
Law Board (MPLB), 241, 243-4

Muslims Against Oppression, 47 0. 24

Muslims Seudents Association (MSA),
35, 41, 91, 224

Muslim Youth Movement
35, 41, 42, 43,47 n. 22, 48 0. 27,
91, 93-4, 105-6, 209, 214, \
254, 235-6, 241, 242, 243, 244, 248,

m4,

MYM), 33-4,

os & Pluralism

250, 252 n. 9, 253 0. 19,259

ab-muctad afin f'l-ard, 16, 83, 86, 98-103,
215, 250: solidarity with, 193-202, 203,
224-5; women as, 239

mautatbinen, 98, 99

An-Na'im, “Abdullahi, 14,79 0, 8

al-nat, 16, 83, 86, 94-7, 110, 112 0, 10, 113
. 11, 141, 189, 249

naskh, 16, 55, 57-2, 60, 61, 79 n. 5,79 0. 6,

8. 8, 162, 163, 167, 167

National Liberation League (NLL), 28-9,
0

National Muslim Conference (NMC.
214, 236

National Pary (NP), 24, 27, 43, 46 n. 15,
210, 211, 223, 251 n. 1, 283.0. 17

Navonal Youth Action, $

ude, Beyers, 6

Neube, Bernadette, 35

Newby, Gordon D., 176 n. 7

New Unity Movement (NUM), 213

AL-Nisaburi, Nizam al-Din, 80 0. 11

‘Non-Buropean Unity Movement (NEUM),
2, 30, 32, 46 n. 16

‘Omar, Abdul Rashied, 14,
247

13,

14, 236, 237-8,

Dulla, 230

Lali, 220

Nauthed, 219

Shoals, 245

Other: collaborationslives as, 28, 111, 123,
190, 201; dhinem, 10), 177 0. 7, ATT 0, 9
exclusivism of, 158; Islam and, 39, 43,
114, 133, 162, 190-93, 257; mushrikun,
17, 143, 149, 152, 154-5, 164, 188, 204
8. 7; and the Muslim cornmunity, 9, 13,
14, 20, 21, 22, 25-6, 33, 36, 37, 38, 39,
41, 42, 43, 48 0. 28, 49, 76, 111,
180-94, 201-2, 203, 204 n, 10, 220, 2
234, 247, 250, 255 0,

19; 08 oppressor,

202; People of the Book, 126, 137, 145 n.
9, 147, 148, 149-53, 177m. 7, 177 0, 9
181, 185, 187, 192, 193, 205 a, 19) the

Qur'an and, 10-11, 13, 14, 17, 112 0, 8,
24-5, 146-76, 179-95, 105, 2545 rejec-

of, 135, 137, 138, 140, 141-2, 146,

- 181, 184, 214-15, 225, 280; rec
of islam, 138, 139, 181, 184-5, 188,

20% the Seif and, 8-9, 15, 16, 175, 179,
188-90, 30, 247; and
struggle for justice, 103, 110, 123, 134,
140-1, 148, 1915 see alse interfaith solidar
ity, pluralism, wilayah

Padia, Haji Wha, 5, 6

Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC), 30, 31, 32,
42, 48 n. 28, 209, 210, 212, 213, 217,

Sind
Patel, Haroon, 217,

252.5

286

Iadex

Patriotic Fromt, 209-10

persecution, religious, 5, 154, 185, 189, 204
ad

religious, xi, 3,9, 12, 13, 14, 17,

43, 57, 68, 74-5, 77-8, 82, 115, 116,
127, 133, 159-61, 163-6, 168-76, 178 n
19, 178 1. 20, 179-80, 188, 196, 201-3,
223, 236, 237-9, 250, 254, 258, 260, 261

ada, 85

adr, 85, 112 n. 3

‘Qibla, 34, 41-2, 48 n. 28,63, 92, 107,209,213,
216, 224, 226, 227, 230, 251 m4, 252m 11

Qur'an, 1, 4, 10-11, 12-13, 15, 17, 43, 44,
52-3, 84, 85, 88, 94-5, 98-9, 102, 111,
112 8. 10, 113 n. 11, 120-1,
125, 134-5, 138-9,144, 17
198, 219, 257: abrogation, 57-8, 59;
commentaries om, 50; contested text, 39;
contextual view of, 43, 49, 50, 53-4,
56-7, 59, 60-1, 62-3, 64, 65, 66, 77,
146-7, 168, 181, 184, 255; crearedness
of, 65, 79 n. 6, 80 m, 12; eternal relewunce
of, 49, 53, 54, 63; and exclusiviem, 39,
49, 115, 147, 175; and guidance, 88-9;
and history, 36, 49, 53, 55, 56-7, 60-1,
63, 66, 69, 77; and’interconnectedness,
93; interpretation of, 49-50, 53, 54, 60-3,
64, 65-7, 73:7, 82-5, 89, 115, 120; and
sihad, 106-8; and justice, 103-6, 143,
144; language of, 53, 69, 73, 79 n. 2, 112
1 5, 114-15, 117-18, 125, 126-9, 130,
131, 132, 136, 137, 145 n. 6, 145.0. 10,
164, 177 n. 11, 183, 195-6, 205 a. 2:
moder appreciation of, 13, 50, 60, 67,
70, 115, 259; and oppression, 11, 44, 97,
98-103, 105, 197, 198, 201, 203, 254-5,
246; and the Other, 10-11, 13,
22, 112 n. 8, 116, 124-5,

experience, 12; and pluralism, 254; and
political discourse, 219; progressive reve
lation, 54-5, 59, 60-1, 67, 79 m. 7, 128%
and revelation, 49, 50, 53, 57, 59, 64-5,
70, 79 n. 4, BB, 104, E18, 147, 149, 1599,
183, 184, 187, 191; and the Self, 14, 89,
201; and social equality, 99-100, 112 9,
B; and socio-political issues, 12, 30, 51,
79 0, 4, 82, 84, 86, 89, 106, 138-9, 18%
South Afsican contest and, $1, 83-4, 86,
101-3, 106, 108, 194, 249, 255, 256,
study of, 16, 67, 137; text of, 49, 58, 59,
62, 70, 77, 82, 90, 97, 102, 103, 106,

126, 162-3, 166-72, 174, 178 a. 18,
181-3, 184-6, 187-8, 194, 192-3, 195-6,
197, 198-9, 202, 204 n, 7, 249; theology

of liberation, 83-5; unity of, 60, 65; see
‘alo hermeneutics

Qutb, Saysid, 33, 54

racial discriminaon and racism, vii, 6, 7,
24, 41, 83, 96, 105, 115, 135, 140, 205 n,
19, 228, 251 n. 2, 261: anti-Semitism,
140, 141-2, 225, 252 n, 11, 2615 discrim-
inatory legislation, 2, 24, 26, 28, 31, 460,
12, 47 n. 17; opposition to, 19, 41; sepre-
gation, 24, 112 8, 7, 189; and sexism, 5,
240, 248-9, xe also apartheid

Rahman, Fazlur, 11, 16, 59, 63-8, 74, 77,
78, 79 n. 7, 144 8. 1, 155, 172, 1760.7

Raoal, Ebrahim, 14, 36, 47 9. 24, 88, 93,
94, 205 mn. 24, 216, 223, 234, 243, 247,
255, 256

Av-Razi, Abu al-Futuh, 178 n. 15

Al-Ruzt, Fakhir al-Din, $9, 79 n, 6, 80.0. 11,
116, 119, 121, 123, 127, 136, 140, 141,
142, 167, 170-1, 178 0. 15, 178 a. 17,
183, 191, 196, 204 n. 7, 204'n. & 208 n.
11,205 0.19

religion: accommodation theology, 189,
199, 209; and activism, 34; collaboration
with apartheid, 6, 7, 14, 176, 180, 1834,
189-90, 199, 2040. 15, 214; conservative
respoaie lo apartheid, 39-42, 43, 77, 96,
189, 204 n. 15, 215, 218-19, 249, 250,
254, 259; a8 contested territory, 6-8)
diversity of, 175 opposition ro apartheid,
7-9, 10, 16, 20, 21-1, 33-9, 42, 47 m, 22,
49, 91, 92-3, 105, 123, 176, 180, 198,
201, 208 m. 15, 284, 253 n. 18; religious
discrimination, 22, 242; tenslon between
religions, 30, 47 1, 18, 48 8, 29, 150-2,
176. 4, 181, 182, 188-9, 206 n. 7, 225

Republican Brothers, 79 n. 8

revelation: and context, 16, 55, 97; and hi
tovicity, 68-71, 72; and language, 69; per-
sonal, 60; progressive, 54-5, 59, 60-1, 675
of the Qur'an, 50, 53, 64% revelations
‘and functionalism, 31-2

Ricoeur, Paul, 68

Rida, Rashid, 116, 119, 122, 127, 128,
130-1, 132, 133, 134, 136, 140, 141, 145
1 9 165-8, 1678, 171, 181, 16%, 185,
191, 205 n. 19, 215,

Ringren, Helmer, 145 0. 8

Rippin. Andrew, 56, 57

Robson, James, 145 0.8

Rokeach, Milton, 7-8

Rushdie, Salman, 253 n. 19

tabab al-muzul (pl, asbab al-nueul), 16, 55,
56-7, 60, 61, 205 2. 19

Sachs, Aibie, 214, 236, 237, 238, 2

Saloge, Yusuf, 252 n, 7

Saloogie, Cassie, 48 n, 26

Samarqandi, Tang, 216

Sayyidain, KG, 440, 1

‘Schussler-Fiorenza, Franc, 52,73, 260

287

Quran,

Segundo, Juan Luis, 11, 14,72

Al-Seppe, Essa, 220

Shabodien, Rosieda, 249

Al-Shafi', Mubammad ibe Idris, 59, 79 0. 3

‘Al-Shabrastani, Mubammad ‘Abd al-Karim,
1762.7, 177 9. 13,

Shaikh, Se'diyya, 14

‘Shaikh, Shamima, 243

‘Shaikh Yusuf (Abidin Tadis Tioesoep),

Shakie, MH, 186

shan'ah, xi, 74, 106, 1
169, 178 n. 17, 216

Shari‘at, “Ali, 33, 92

shirk, 92, 94, 100, 101, 104, 149,
177 0. 8,260

Simone, Magali,

Sisulu, Walter, 31

Sita, Manibben, 35

Sitoto Tair, 234

Slovo, Joe, 251 1. 2

‘Smith, Jane, 130, 131, 132, 133, 145 0. 8

Solomon, Hassan, 35, 36, 37, 38, 215,

Sooks, Yasmin, 48 1.

South’ Afric
(SABSA), 4

South African Communist Party, 251 n. 2

South African Council of Churches, 35

South African Moslem Association, 46 0. 13

‘Sparks, Allister, 207

‘Staggies, Rashaad, 226, 227, 228

‘Student Chnsoan Moverneot (Breakthrough

Al-Suddi, 178m, 14, 205 0. 16

‘sunnah, 83, B4, 112 8,

Al-Suyut Jalal ab-Dio, 57, 50

‘Al Tabari, Tbe Jarie, 79 n. 10, 99, 116, 219,
121, 127, 133, 136, 140, 142, 145 0. 11
162, 103, 164, 108, 176 n. 1, 178 0. 14,
178. 17, 191, 205 n. 16

‘Al-Tabataba’l, Muba
119, 128, 130, 140,

166, 167, 168,

154, 175,

a Black Scholars Association

mad Hussain, 116,
141, 142, 165, 16

167, 170, 171, 177 0. 9, 183, 208 n.5

‘Tablighi Jamma’ah, 4, 5, 8

adr, 16, 54

tafvir, 61-2, 79 n. 9: Anb'arite, 61, 116:
‘contemporary, 116; esoteric, 116 june
61; Muvtazilite, 61, 116; scholastic, 116
Shiite, 61, 116; Sunni, 1105 taf b
ra'y, 75; traditional, 116, 122

Liberation

& Ploralism

Talbi, Mohamed, 144 0. 1

Taleghani, Matroud, 110

Tambo, Oliver, 46m. 16

tag, 16, 68, 83, $6, 87-90, 93, 110, 112

awh, 16, 83, 86, 90-4, 97, 101, 102, 103,
110, 1120, 6 127, 141, 148, 149, 154-5,
166, 192

aed, 61,790. 10

Tayo, Abdulbader, 14

Tranwvaal Indian Congress, 48.0. 26

Truth and Reconciliation Come
2510.1

Tuan Guru (Imam “Abd Allah Qadi Abd
al-Salar)

Tura, Desmond, 38, 251 9. 1

‘Umar al-Khoattab, 113 2.°11

United Christan Reconciliation Council, 8

United Democratic Froat (UDF), 6, 35-6,
37, 34, 41, 42, 47 n. 25, 48 0, 28, 108,
190, 224, 240, 248,

Vabiduddin, Syed, 144 n. 1

Wadud-Mubsin, Amina, 14, 246,

Ware, W. Montgomery, 176 n. 7, 1

Wijoyo, Alex Scesilo, 1760, 7

weilayah, 176, 180-6, 187-93, 203,

208 0. 6, 204 8. 9

men, status of; under apartheid, vil, 2405

sion, 212,

248, 255

7.8

2080. 5,

‘of Rights, 243; gender equality,
17, 208, 251-2, 236, 298, 239-41, 243,
240, 256, 259, 261; and liberation,
40; and Muslim Personal Law,
in Muslim society, 5, 9, 106

1, 242, 244, 246, 248, 250, 252 0
2 ms 13, 252 n. 16; in the Qur'an, 99,
43, 249-50, 254: in the shan'ah, 106,

241, 243; and
World ¢
WRP)
Wrankmore, Bers
Wray, Norman, 5

Ye'or, Bat, 177 2.7

he seruggle, 253 n, 18
ference on Re!

gion and Peace
236, 238, 247

-Zamakhsbsrt, Mahmoud fbn ‘Umar, 80 1,
1h, 142.0, 4, 116, 119, 121, 127, 132,
136, 163, 164, 170-1, 143, 191, 204.0. 9,

Zionist Christian Council, 8

Zuma, Nkosazana, 232

et against one of the most exciting events in world
_” history ~ the demise of apartheid - this book offers a
fascinating account of how South African Muslims
succeeded in both co-operating with members of
other faith communities in che struggle against oppression,
and being true to their faith.
Farid Esack reflects on key qur"anic passages used in the context
of oppression to rethink the role of Islam in plural society. He
exposes how traditional interpretations of the Qur'an, which
denied virtue outside Islam, were used to legitimize an
order, and demonstrates that those very texts, if interpreted
within a contemporary socio-historical context, support active
solidarity with the religious other for change.
This book offers scholars, students and all those concerned with
Islam in the modern world a fascinating insight into a contempo-
rary issue.
Farid Esack is Senior Lecturer in Religion at the University of
the Western Cape, South Africa, and is an internationally known
scholar, speaker and social activist,

This book by a brilliant young Muslim scholar is important for all of
us... significant new religious understanding always comes out of new
experiences, and in the liberation struggle in South Africa the Qur'an
revealed new aspects of its meaning,

John Hick, Danforth Professor of Philosophy of Religion,
‘Claremont Graduate School, California

Esack's Islamic liberation theology is as stunning and challenging as was
Gutirres's Christian Uberation theology. . . Esack offers a challenge for
all religions: that human liberation and interreligious dialogue cannot be
realized without each other, . an extraordinarily good book,

Pal Knitter, Professor of Theology, Xavier University, Cincinnath

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